All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Excellence in the Built Environment makes mulitple recomendations in its new report: More Homes, Fewer Complaints.
A new report from the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Excellence in the Built Environment, published in July 2016, has called for the introduction of a New Homes Ombudsman to mediate in dispute between consumers and builders or warranty providers. The role, it suggests, would be funded by a housebuilders levy.
The recommendation is one of 10 published in the report, More Homes, Fewer Complaints, which also calls for the supply of a ‘comprehensive information pack’ for buyers and recommends that the industry ‘significantly increase skills training programs’ to bring through a quality culture and to draw more people into the industry.
In his Foreward to the report Oliver Colville MP, Chairman of the APPG notes, “The UK housebuilding industry needs to raise supply. In tandem, it also needs to ensurethat the quality of new build housing is good enough for people to live in. Although large numbers of homebuyers are happy with the quality of their new homes, there have been too many reports of new homes that are quite simply uninhabitable.”
He goes on to say: “We need to build more homes, but I want quality homes for quality homeowners.”
Other recommendations in the report include:
- Housebuilding sales contracts should be standardised
- Buyers should have the right to inspect properties before completion
- There should be a review of laws governing consumer rights when purchasing new homes
- DCLG should commission a thorough review of warranties
- Housebuilders should instigate a new quality culture by adopting quality systems to ISO standards
- A minimum standard should be set for compliance inspections
- Housebuilders should make the annual customer satisfaction survey more independent to boost customer confidence
Full details of the Inquiry and the Report can be found here.
Details about the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Excellence in the Built Environment can be found here.
