Action covers more than 700,000 buyers of new-build homes since 2015
Seven of the UK's largest housebuilders are facing a class action claim worth up to £4.5 billion, brought on behalf of homebuyers who allege that anti-competitive practices pushed up the price of new-build properties.
The claim has been filed by Mark McLaren, a former legal affairs manager at consumer group Which?, against Barratt Redrow, Bellway, The Berkeley Group, Bloor Homes, Persimmon, Taylor Wimpey and Vistry Group.
The legal action follows a Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) investigation into the seven firms, which concluded last year when the companies gave binding commitments not to share competitively sensitive information with one another. As part of that settlement, reached in October, the housebuilders also agreed to pay £100 million towards affordable housing schemes across the UK's four nations.
According to lawyers acting for the claimant, the case was lodged on Tuesday on behalf of over 700,000 people who purchased new-build homes in Britain between October 2015 and 24 June this year. The claim must still be approved by the Competition Appeal Tribunal before proceeding.
It comes shortly after the Consumers' Association withdrew a separate £480 million class action relating to alleged consumer law breaches in the smartphone market.
Housebuilders face potential £4.5 billion class action legal case https://t.co/yGmXfmI7Qw pic.twitter.com/uBgkhY9xYG
— The Independent (@Independent) June 30, 2026
McLaren's case, brought with law firms Geradin Partners and Hausfeld, argues that affected buyers could each be entitled to between £3,100 and £6,200 in compensation, amounting to a total claim of between £2.2 billion and £4.5 billion.
“Buying a home is one of the biggest financial commitments most of us will make,” said McLaren, adding: “If… housebuilders shared sensitive pricing and sales information with one another instead of competing properly, homeowners across Great Britain may well have been left out of pocket as a result.”
Scott Campbell, a partner at Hausfeld, said that the consumer class action mechanism, introduced into law in England and Wales in 2015, was essential in cases of this kind. “For most homeowners, bringing an individual claim simply isn't realistic, as the cost and complexity put it out of reach,” he said. He added that the legislation provided “a practical route for hundreds of thousands of consumers to seek compensation where they may otherwise have had no way of doing so.”
The CMA opened its investigation last year amid concerns that the housebuilders had exchanged commercially sensitive data in a way that may have affected site development and the pricing of new homes. The regulator identified evidence that the firms had shared information on sales activity, including pricing, viewing numbers and buyer incentives such as upgraded fittings or contributions towards stamp duty. Because the companies entered into commitments with the CMA, the regulator was not required to determine whether competition law had been breached.
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