SAFEagent is calling on the industry bodies that operate Client Money Protection and all the tenancy deposit schemes to reveal how much they pay out in claims when client money is stolen.

At this month’s ARLA conference, housing minister Brandon Lewis made it clear that he will not support mandatory CMP. His stance appeared to change yesterday.

John Midgley, chair of SAFEagent, said: “We’ve long campaigned for mandatory CMP, but we believe that for Government to really take the scale of the problem seriously, we need to be talking about just how much money has been paid out by the industry where there has been theft or fraudulent use of clients’ money.

“To really get to the nub of the problem, SAFEagent is calling on all industry bodies who operate CMP schemes and the tenancy deposit schemes to collectively reveal how much they have paid out in claims over the past five years.

“Too often the cases don’t receive significant press coverage because claimants are reimbursed.

“However, if we are ever going to convince Government to act, these are meaningful statistics that we need, and which have been missing up until now.

“The Government has resisted making inclusion under a CMP scheme mandatory on the grounds that it over-burdens agents with an additional cost but without this, consumers’ money is at risk.

“What about the firms which have already voluntarily taken on paying to be part of a CMP scheme and demonstrated their commitment to the consumer?

“Let’s get this out in the open. It’s time for all sector organisations to work together under one banner to show the Government how much is being lost and just why mandatory CMP is so important.”

CMP schemes are run by NALS, ARLA, RICS, UKALA and the Law Society.

SAFEagent does not promote any particular scheme, but does campaign for letting agents to have CMP and for greater public awareness.