A new lease of life: - CentreForum

A New Lease of Lifelicense fees in other similar sectors such as park homes, tackling“the worst practices and minimising the burden on those who do agood job for their residents”. 101Avoiding barriers to entryResident groups and trade bodies have for years been callingunanimously for the introduction of statutory regulation. 102 Theonly discernible case made against this is that regulation would addcosts to the management process and would reduce competition inthe management sector. We have shown above that costs are small.Clearly regulation would create some obstacles, but one of theproblems it is tackling is precisely that there are currently no barriersor guaranteed standards for managing agents. As the previousgovernment noted, whilst avoiding anti-competitive barriers, it isimportant that there are ‘hurdles to entry’ ensuring that managingagents have a sufficient level of knowledge and expertise. 103 Weface a choice between a good sector with reasonable hurdles andan unregulated sector without any. Regulation and qualificationscan be introduced without creating uncompetitive barriers to entryinto the management industry and without adding unnecessarycosts to management.It is vital that regulation does not create an unfair barrier forprospective managing agent companies. The Housing Minister hasstated that he wants to rely on more proactive self-regulation whichassumes that good new firms will volunteer to be regulated andpay the associated costs. This means that regulation would onlyimpose a real barrier for new firms that were not planning to beself-regulated. It is true that new firms entering the market wouldhave to pay for management training, but this is clearly a valuableand worthwhile process. Rather than applying for a full licence,new managing agents should apply for a certificate of registration101 Department for Communities and Local Government, ‘ A better deal for mobilehome owners: Consultation’, p 5.102 Based on authors’ interviews with relevant stakeholders, as well as otherbackround research. For example, a freedom of information request document,entitled ‘Key notes from task and finish group meeting 10th August 2009 -regulation of leasehold managing agents in the private sector’, shows thatconsensus was reached by members (including Lease, ARMA, ARHM, RICS andARLA) that “There needs to be regulation and redress”.103 Department for Communities and Local Government, ‘The private rented sector:professionalism and quality – consultation Summary of responses and nextsteps’.58