Safeagent has announced that it is overhauling the pricing structure of its Client Money Protection (CMP) scheme.

The accreditation scheme for lettings and management agents says that the changes will result in the majority of accredited firms either saving money on the cost of their inclusion under its CMP scheme or not seeing any increase on last year.

The change will particularly benefit smaller firms and new entrants into the market, according to Isobel Thomson, chief executive of safeagent.

“The market has matured since the introduction of mandatory CMP in 2019 and we have worked closely with our insurers to secure new pricing which supports small firms and new entrants into the market,” she said

The existing structure offers three pricing bands – for firms holding ‘up to £500k’; ‘£500k-plus to £1m’; and ‘£1m-plus’ in their client account(s).

With immediate effect, the new structure introduces six bands with pricing for firms in the ‘under £50k’ and ‘£50k-plus to £100k’ bands paying 20% and 13.8% less respectively than last year, safeagent says.

Thomson added: “This is a further example of safeagent listening to agents, focussing on what they need, cutting their costs and helping them perform their role.”