John Spellar – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

The below Parliamentary question was asked by John Spellar on 2016-01-06.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what recent representations his Department has received about exit fees from retirement homes and villages; and if he will bring forward legislative proposals to regulate such fees.

Brandon Lewis

Following representations on this issue and an investigation by The Office of Fair Trading (now the Competition and Markets Authority) in 2013, my Department passed this issue to the Law Commission to investigate in 2014. Their remit was to consider the problems caused by exit fees, consider whether greater protections were needed, and to make recommendations to Government. The Law Commissioners issued a consultation, which is due to close on 29 January; I would urge all interested parties to respond to this.

Once the Law Commission has completed its work the Government will consider any recommendations and respond as appropriate.