Landmark £4.5 billion legal claim launched against UK's biggest housebuilders
London, 30 June 2026 – A collective action has been filed with the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) on behalf of more than 700,000 people who bought a new-build home in Great Britain between October 2015 and 24 June 2026.
The claim alleges anticompetitive conduct by a group of the UK's largest housebuilders - Barratt Redrow, Bellway, Redrow, The Berkeley Group, Bloor Homes, Persimmon, Taylor Wimpey, Vistry Group and Countryside Partnerships - and is brought by respected consumer champion Mark McLaren on behalf of all potentially affected homeowners. He is represented by competition law firms Hausfeld and Geradin Partners, acting as co-counsel.
The value of compensation sought is estimated at between £2.2 billion and £4.5 billion, equivalent to between £3,100 and £6,200 for each affected homeowner.
The claim follows an earlier Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) investigation that looked at the conduct of housebuilders between January 2022 and February 2024, which resulted in the companies accepting binding commitments in October 2025 to address the CMA’s concerns. The commitments included agreements by the housebuilders not to share certain types of sensitive commercial information in future, alongside enhanced compliance measures and a £100 million contribution towards affordable housing initiatives.
This claim seeks to go beyond the CMA investigation. It alleges that the impact of information sharing may have extended well before 2022 and seeks compensation for homeowners allegedly affected from October 2015 onwards.
Mark McLaren, the proposed class representative, said:
"Buying a home is one of the biggest financial commitments most of us will make. If, as seems to be the case, 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. This claim is about standing up for those buyers and ensuring that compensation is delivered to those who deserve it.”
Court documents allege that the housebuilders exchanged competitively sensitive information with one another, including information relating to prices, buyer incentives and sales activity. The claim alleges that these information exchanges reduced competition between the housebuilders and resulted in homeowners across Great Britain paying more for new-build homes than they should have. If established, this type of conduct would amount to a breach of UK competition law and could result in the housebuilders being liable for substantial damages.
Scott Campbell, Partner at Hausfeld, said:
“For most homeowners, bringing an individual claim simply isn’t realistic, as the cost and complexity put it out of reach. That’s why this collective action is so important. It provides a practical route for hundreds of thousands of consumers to seek compensation where they may otherwise have had no way of doing so.”
Patrick Teague, Partner at Geradin Partners, said:
“We are pleased to have been instructed by Mark McLaren to bring these proceedings, together with our co-counsel at Hausfeld. The claim raises important issues about competition in the new-build housing market, and we look forward to assisting the Tribunal in determining those issues and, if the claim succeeds, securing compensation for affected homeowners.”
Media enquiries
DRD Partnership
Jon McLeod: jon.mcleod@drdpartnership.com, +44 (0)7775 530978
Iona Cross: iona.cross@drdpartnership.com, +44 (0)7495 997512
Gina Watson: gina.watson@drdpartnership.com, +44 (0)7584 939498
Notes to editors
Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). (2025). ‘Decision to accept commitments in relation to suspected anti-competitive conduct by certain housebuilders Competition Act 1998’, Gov.uk, 30 October 2025.
Before the case can proceed, it must first be approved by the Competition Appeal Tribunal. The Tribunal will hold an initial certification hearing to decide whether to grant a Collective Proceedings Order, which would allow the claim to move forward as a collective action. If approved, the case would then proceed to a full trial.
The so-called ‘opt-out’ claim is for the benefit of all affected house buyers unless they choose not to be covered and is the best way for them to obtain redress as consumers. Homebuying is a heavily documented process, meaning that the process of tracing affected consumers in the event of a successful claim will be reasonably straight-forward: the housebuilders will need to assist with this process.
About Mark McLaren
Mark McLaren is a consumer champion and experienced class representative who has dedicated a large part of his career to fighting for consumers, across a wide range of sectors including housing. He spent nine years working for The Consumers' Association, Which?, where he worked on the successful campaign to require estate, managing and letting agents to join a redress scheme, as well as on reforms to the home buying process and leasehold reform.
Until 2023 he was a member of the Consumer Panel of the Legal Services Board and a non-executive director of The Property Ombudsman. He has been an independent member of the Property Codes Compliance Committee, enforcing the CoPSO Search Code, since 2019, and also a long serving independent member of the General Optical Council's Fitness to Practice Committee.
In 2020, he filed a successful follow-on opt-out competition damages claim on behalf of millions of new car buyers. (https://www.cardeliverycharges.com/). This claim was finally settled for a total damages sum of almost £93m in late 2025.
The team
The claim is led by Mark McLaren through HOCR Limited, a special purpose company set up to carry out the litigation. The proposed class representative has instructed Geradin Partners and Hausfeld as co-counsel. Joseph Bell and Dr Gunnar Niels, both Partners at Oxera, have been instructed as lead expert economists. The legal team is further supported by leading competition counsel, including Tim Ward KC and Ben Lask KC of Monckton Chambers, and Daniel Carall-Green and Hannah Bernstein of Fountain Court Chambers.
It is funded by Burford Capital, which has committed up to £29 million to the proceedings. Class members will not be required to pay any costs and bear no financial risk if the claim is unsuccessful.
Further information, including the full Proposed Class Definition, is available at www.housebuildersclaim.co.uk and on the Tribunal's website at www.catribunal.org.uk.
