Liberal Democrat MPs grill FirstPort over "appalling" conduct

Yesterday, Thornbury & Yate MP Claire Young was one of several Liberal Democrat MPs that met with FirstPort Managing Director Martin King and senior leadership in Parliament to challenge them on the huge number of people affected by the companies’ poor practices.

In total, eleven MPs and representatives of nine others met with Managing Director Martin King and demanded he justify the poor service FirstPort provides to freeholders and leaseholders.

In the meeting, MPs outlined how services charges for leaseholders and freeholders had risen significantly with little or no explanation, and that FirstPort had repeatedly failed to respond to leaseholders’ requests for evidence to the explain extra costs.

They also highlighted the repeated aggressive increases to service charges, which have been well above inflation, and a swathe of issues with the way the company handles the management of its properties.

Some of these included charging residents £175 for new light bulbs, subcontractor fees charged at well above market rates, a repeated failure to respond to residents’ emails and letters, residents being refused access to contracts, and much more.

In response to the issues raised by MPs at the meeting, Managing Director Martin King admitted that FirstPort needed to make significant improvements to how the company operates and to overhaul the way they communicate with customers.

Speaking after the meeting Thornbury & Yate MP Claire Young said:

“The practice of FirstPort in recent years has been utterly appalling. They’ve been allowed to run roughshod over their customers, taking them for granted and fleecing them with extortionate charges.

“At the meeting, we heard time and time again of egregious examples of poor business practice – and even some cases of outright bullying of vulnerable customers. FirstPort must not be allowed to keep treating people like this.

“I made clear to their Managing Director that things need to change, and I welcome the fact he acknowledged their conduct has been wrong. However, it will take more than warm words and nicer worded letters to those affected to clean up this mess.

“FirstPort must undergo a wholesale change, so we can ensure that the wellbeing of leaseholders and freeholders is their number one priority. I will continue to work with my Liberal Democrat colleagues to do this and hold them to account on their promises.”