MP's bid to license estate agents

A move to bring in compulsory regulation of estate agents is being made today by a leading Labour backbencher.

Clive Betts is tabling an amendment to the Housing Bill to be heard during the Bill's second reading on Tuesday.

Mr Betts said he wants to raise the issue of unscrupulous estate agents, whose antics were exposed by the BBC Brassed Off series and by a Which? magazine investigation. Both found widespread malpractice and fraud.

He will propose an addition to the legislation setting up Home Information Packs, which all property sellers will need by

2007.

Mr Betts will ask the Government for a clause stating only agents belonging to an accredited institution, association or Ombudsman scheme will be eligible to assemble the packs.

He said: "The people who convey your house must be licensed and the people who survey your house must be qualified.

"Yet the people who sell your house - and make more money out of it than all the others put together - can be complete cowboys."

The initiative is supported by Which? which last month launched a major campaign to persuade the Government to rein in rogue estate agents.

"We think that the Government needs to listen to what the people want, and that is the proper regulation of estate agents", a spokeswoman said.

"For far too long estate agents have been allowed to get away with regularly breaking the law. The Office of Fair Trading's recent report only made things worse and will allow shoddy practice to continue."