Law.com ranks Housebuilders action number one in Top 20 UK litigation of 2026
Law.com has ranked the landmark £4.5 billion collective action against the UK’s biggest housebuilders as the number one dispute in its Top 20 litigation of 2026 so far, placing it ahead of major claims involving some of the world’s best-known businesses, including Google and Apple.
The ranking underlines the significance of the action, recognising its scale, importance, and potential impact on homeowners. It also highlights the growing importance of collective redress: five of the ten largest cases featured are collective actions, demonstrating the increasing role these proceedings play in enabling those who have suffered harm to seek compensation.
The action was brought by Mark McLaren, through special purpose vehicle HOCR Limited, on behalf of more than 700,000 potentially affected homeowners. It alleges that several major UK housebuilders shared competitively sensitive information with each other, including pricing, incentives (such as discounts or upgraded), and sales data. This may have reduced competition between them and meant that people buying new-build homes paid more, or received fewer incentives, than they otherwise would have.
Hausfeld and Geradin Partners are advising the proposed class representative.
