Just before Parliament broke for Christmas, Richard joined a group of MPs for a meeting with Firstport - an estate management company.
Richard Fuller MP said:
Judging by my email inbox and the comments by MPs in Parliament, Firstport has one of the most reviled brands in the country. Their poor reputation was based on a history of poor service, excessive fees and confusion for those who were charged by Firstport about why they were paying twice for services normally provided by a local council.
Firstport is under new management and I attended a second parliamentary session, arranged by Dame Caroline Dinenage MP, for Firstport to outline the changes they are making to improve their service levels and to respond to concerns that have been raised with MPs. To be fair to Firstport, they made many of the right noises. To be fair to my constituents, Firstport still have a long way to go.
Nevertheless I thought it would be helpful to share – unvarnished – the slides that Firstport presented to MPs to explain what they are doing though I do not endorse this as a full and satisfactory response to my constituents who continue to have problems.
Ultimately we need the new government to build on the measures I got included in the Leasehold and Freehold Act 2024. I want to see measures including: improving the adoption process between developers and councillors; banning estate management charges for services that would ordinarily be provided by a council (and therefore already covered by council tax); and further improvements to empower residents’ rights over the governance and finances of estate management companies.
You can see Richard's previous activity on Estate Management Companies and their charges at https://www.richardfuller.co.uk/campaigns/freehold-estate-management-charge-reform
