Lord Palmer of Childs Hill,
Chair of Property Redress advisory panel, summarises this year's events
Welcome to Property Redress' annual report 2024. Change, celebration, milestone and more change to come. This all but sums up the last year for the scheme I have represented for over a decade now, but also for the property market and indeed the country.
“The battle with inflation saw rents rise, interest rates increase and this led to a sluggish sales market and a volatile rent one. ”
I have been around long enough, not to be surprised with how the unexpected always makes fools of us all but I appreciate for business and people’s lives, the rocky path of the last few years has been as impactful as I can ever remember. We entered 2024, in the anticipation of an eventful time and so it proved. I think we knew what was to come – namely a volatile economic picture, change and reform on the agenda for the property world, a General Election and the implications of this. On top of this, the industry was expecting two major legislative landmarks, with the Renters' Reform Bill and the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Bill, moving through the Parliamentary process. Both bills were on the cusp of entering into the House of Lords, where I for one could have a good look at them, when the country was plunged into an earlier than expected election.
On that rain deluged day and in the days after, the winding up at the end of the Parliament, known as washup, saw a truncated Leasehold Reform Bill pass into law and the Renters’ Reforms sink without a trace. The hiatus that is an election was followed by a new government and a new direction. We are still very early stage of this administration but the same challenges remain and the this will put the same pressures on the sector as before. The reform agenda was back on the table and we now have the Renters’ Rights Bill, which is in the advanced stages of passing into law. In 2024, Property Redress celebrated its tenth birthday and my anniversary of being appointed as their Chair of the original Advisory Council.
The scheme has gone from strength to strength and toward the end of 2024, it reached the milestone of twenty-thousand individual offices and branches as members. This also made it the largest lettings redress scheme of the two providers. Size of membership however is not the only measure of success and the drive towards improvement to the service provided has been ceaseless and this cumulated with the roll out of a brand-new website, which provides an enhanced experience for users and provides more help and guidance than ever before. As part of this exercise, a rebranding took place with a new name (Property Redress), logo and look and feel that will drive forward the organisation into the future. Behind the scenes, the relatively recent changes to the governance and accountability of the operation, saw the first full year of the two-tier panels working side by side. With myself continuing to lead the advisory panel and Eric Walker the members’ panel.
A full report of the activities each panel undertook is in this report. Finally, I extend my thanks to the many people in the team who worked tirelessly to deliver the improvements and changes to Property Redress and are preparing for even more of the same for this year.
