“This is why we have a housing crisis”
General view of a Bristol housing estate built by Redrow Homes, one of the seven housebuilders involved(Image: PAUL GILLIS / Reach PLC)
Bristol campaigners are outraged by a plan to allow the biggest seven housebuilders in the UK to pay their way out of a “serious” investigation. The proposed £100 million deal would see the Government’s competition watchdog drop an investigation into allegations they breached the law by working together to share commercially sensitive information.
Six of the seven have been the leading developers in Bristol and South Gloucestershire over the past few years and are behind some of the most controversial developments in the area.
The housebuilders were accused of sharing commercially sensitive information about how they were getting on with selling their developments – including everything from the agreed prices of sales, any special deals they were running, how many of their properties had been sold, reserved or cancelled and even how many people had visited show homes and sales offices, down to what kind of buyer they were and how interested they were.
Those claims sparked a major inquiry by the Competitions and Markets Authority (CMA), the Government regulator which investigates allegations of price fixing, cartels and breaches of competition law. The firms said the offer of voluntary commitments does not mean they admit any wrongdoing.
The CMA said its investigation spanned more than two years, from January 2022 to February 2024, but now that investigation is set to be scrapped, just as it was getting going.
The CMA has announced that, instead of undertaking an investigation and mounting potential prosecutions, it has drawn up a deal, called a ‘commitments package’, which would see the seven developers pay £100 million towards the Government’s affordable homes fund, and sign up to pledges not to commit anti-competitive behaviours.
But environmental and housing campaigners in Bristol have expressed their fury at the proposal, and called on the CMA to scrap the deal and continue with the investigation.
What does the CMA say?
The CMA said the offer of a ‘commitments package’ is the biggest single sum of money it has agreed to extract from an investigation in its history, and a CMA spokesperson said the housebuilders themselves made the offer of £100m in return for the investigation to be dropped.
The CMA is now putting the question of whether or not the offer should be accepted out to public consultation, and people have until July 24 to respond.
The CMA’s chief executive Sarah Cardell said: “Housing is a critical sector for the UK economy and housing costs are a substantial part of people’s monthly spend, so it’s essential that competition works well. This keeps prices as low as possible and increases choice.
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“As a result of the CMA’s investigation, housebuilders are taking clear and comprehensive steps to ensure they comply with the law and don’t share competitively sensitive information with their rivals.
“Alongside these measures, the housebuilders we investigated have agreed to pay £100 million towards affordable homes programmes, which will help communities up and down the country.
“The CMA will now consult on the proposed commitments before deciding whether to accept them. Any payments will be made within three months once agreed,” she added.
What is the reaction to the deal?
Campaigner Danica Priest on the Western Slopes, between Knowle West and Hartcliffe Way in Bedminster, which are under threat from development(Image: Danica Priest)
Environmental campaigners, who for years have been calling out housing developers’ practices to restrict supply as one of the causes of the housing shortage in and around Bristol, called on people to tell the CMA not to accept the deal.
“I can’t stress how concerning this is,” said Danica Priest, who has campaigned to protect green field sites in South Bristol. “The house builders just bought their way out of a very serious investigation. That should scare all of you. Let that sink in.
“This is why we have a housing crisis, not bats. They didn’t agree to pay this money to the CMA as a settlement after an investigation, they paid to stop an investigation that started so no further investigation would happen. That should not be happening,” she added.
Who are the developers?
Seven developers were named in the original investigation, which was launched in 2024 after a year-long market study into barriers leading to the undersupply of new homes in the housebuilding sector.
It was claimed they shared what should be commercially sensitive information with the allegation that this was done to ‘prevent and distort’ competition. Industry experts said sharing information on prices and demand would better inform supposed rivals about the speed with which they should be building homes to maximise profits.
The seven developers are Barratt Redrow, which recently merged, Bellway, Berkeley Group, Bloor Homes, Persimmon, Taylor Wimpey and Vistry. In making the offer, all seven housebuilders have denied doing anything wrong.
The seven housebuilders’ most recent reported profits were almost all down on previous years, but combined, the seven still made more than £1.7 billion in pre-tax profits in the last financial year between them. That means their share of the £100 million pay out would represent around five per cent, on average, of each of the housebuilders’ profits for just one year.
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Barratt Redrow recently completed the big redevelopment of part of the Frenchay Hospital site in north Bristol, and are behind controversial plans to build 150 homes in Hanham and up to 200 on land that was part of Yew Tree Farm in South Bristol.
Bellway has plans to build 555 new homes next to the park and ride in Brislington, and 150 new homes on the Flowers Hill site in Brislington.
Bloor Homes is building thousands of homes in South Gloucestershire, including 950 in Warmley, 250 in Charfield and recently sparked the fury of the local MP for unveiling plans to build 450 new homes on Green Belt land on the edge of Coalpit Heath.
Persimmon Homes is building hundreds of new homes on the western end of the former Filton Airfield site between Brentry and Cribbs Causeway, while Taylor Wimpey recently began a public consultation on homes on the edge of South Bristol in Highridge. They are also the developer behind plans for new homes in Mangotsfield and a new town on the edge of South Bristol, on the site of what is now the Woodspring Golf Club at Barrow Gurney.
Vistry are the preferred partner of Goram Homes, Bristol City Council ’s housing development company, and have teamed up with Goram to start building more than a thousand homes on Hengrove Park and near the Wells Road in Hengrove, and in Lockleaze, while they have partnered up with Taylor Wimpey to propose hundreds of new homes on the edge of Whitchurch Village.