A prominent rental activist is tomorrow going to tell a House of Lords committee about the need to regulate letting agents.

Conor O’Shea – policy and public affairs manager at the Generation Rent group – is giving evidence to the House of Lords Industry and Regulators Committee’s inquiry into the regulation of property agents.

This is tomorrow, beginning at 10.30am.

The inquiry will examine the current approach to regulation of property agents in the residential sector, and in particular whether there should be a new regulator of property agents.

O’Shea will be followed by Sebastian O’Kelly, the respected chief executive of the Leasehold Knowledge Partnership. 

The committee is chaired by veteran Labour peer Baroness Taylor of Bolton who, as Ann Taylor, served for four years in the Cabinet in the first Blair government starting in 1997.

The committee says possible questions to their pair will include what are the key challenges facing tenants when dealing with letting agents? And how easy is it currently for tenants and leaseholders to complain about property agents? And would a regulator of property agents be able to deal with the challenges tenants and leaseholders face with property agents? And would you support a code of practice that agents would have to sign up to as a condition of their license to practice? 

Back in 2019 the Working Group on the Regulation of Property Agents, which was established by the government, recommended the establishment of a new independent regulator in the sector. However, the government has not yet responded to this proposal.