Anna Sabine MP has raised concerns about the lack of meaningful engagement with homeowners at Sulis Down, highlighting wider questions about residents’ rights when developers fail to deliver the communities people were promised.
Across the country, residents on new housing developments are facing unfinished infrastructure, unresolved issues and uncertainty over when promised works will be completed. Too often, homeowners find themselves caught between developers, management companiesand local authorities, with no clear route to getting problems resolved.
Sulis Down, built in 2019, is a residential development on the southern edge of Bath, located in South Stoke. Residents currently living on the site have raised concerns about unfinished and dangerous highways, unkept landscaping, broken street lighting andbuilding resources left scattered around the site. Anna has met with the residents’ association to hear their concerns and approached Vistry directly to request a meeting, but the developer has declined, instead directing her constituents back to its customerservices team.
For homeowners who have already spent years trying to get answers, being sent back to the same customer service channels is deeply frustrating.
The situation raises serious questions about the accountability of developers and the rights of residents once they have signed on the dotted line.
Vistry’s own website says its purpose is to create “places people love to live”. Yet residents at Sulis Down are still seeking meaningful ef6ngagement and answers about their development.
Anna said:
“Buying a home is probably the biggest financial commitment most people will ever make. People work hard, save for years and put their trust in a developer to deliver the home and community they have been promised.
“They should not then find themselves spending months or years chasing basic answers about unfinished works, while being passed from one department to another.
“Customer services cannot become a substitute for accountability, and a complaints process is not much use if people cannot get meaningful answers or clear timelines for resolving their concerns.
“When a developer has sold people their homes, it should not be able to wash its hands of the wider development and leave residents to pick up the pieces.”
After Vistry declined to meet with residents, Anna took the issue directly to the House of Commons, naming the development and Vistry Group in Parliament. Anna has requested a meeting with the housing minister to discuss how residents of new developments canbe given real power to challenge developers.
