Local MP visits ‘poorly-run’ Langford estate to fight for residents

PRESS RELEASE FROM ALISTAIR STRATHERN MP

FRIDAY 13th JUNE 2025

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Alistair Strathern, the MP for the Hitchin constituency, visited the Kingsley Manor estate in Langford recently to meet with campaigning residents fed up with the challenges faced on their unadopted estate.

Strathern visited to meet residents and see first-hand the challenges with the management and upkeep of the estate which residents have been campaigning on for years. As an unadopted estate, residents are left on the hook to a private management company for the upkeep of communal land and roads, services that other residents would normally have covered by their council tax.

On the estate, residents shared concerns about the substandard nature of the service they have received, often at significant cost. Residents raised concerns with substandard conditions, safety concerns on communal playgrounds, unkept vegetation and poor accessibility. Despite this poor service, they have still seen their management fees rise and rise.

Following the visit, Strathern is calling on the management company, Greenbelt, as well as the original developer and CBC, to all step up and do right by residents on the estate.

Strathern has been a long-term campaigner for fleecehold reform, to put power back in the hands of residents and end what he has called the ‘fleecehold stealth tax’. As well as visiting estates all over his constituency, and repeatedly speaking in Parliament on this, he recently introduced a Bill to make estate adoption easier and to raise required standards on private estates.

Alistair Strathern MP said:

“Residents at the poorly-run Kingsley Manor estate have been organising and campaigning together for an improved estate for years and years. From unsafe playgrounds to high bills, they have not received the service they deserve.

“I will continue to push the developer, management company and council to do more to support the residents. They deserve far better than the substandard service they have received.  

“Unfortunately Kingsley Manor is just one example of so many similar issues across the country. Unadopted estates are a growing challenge, leaving more and more residents on the hook for the fleecehold stealth tax and with little recourse over poor quality upkeep.

“Having long campaigned on this and introduced legislation to tackle some of these challenges nationally, I am pleased to see the Government currently preparing legislation to act on this growing scandal. I will be scrutinising any announcements to ensure they deliver.”

Notes for Editors

You can see a picture of Strathern with Kingsley residents attached.

You can see Strathern introduce his Bill to tackle fleecehold, here.