Kevin Hollinrake, founder of Hunters estate agency and now Conservative MP, joins panel at TPO Conference
Kevin Hollinrake, former estate agent and now Conservative MP for Thirsk and Malton, has been announced as the final member of the ‘panel of experts’ due to participate in, what is likely to be, a lively panel debate at The Property Ombudsman Conference on 10th July 2019. 
Kevin represents the constituency where he was born and brought up and now lives with his wife and four children. He was elected to Parliament in May 2015 and holds the position of Parliamentary Private Secretary to DEFRA Secretary of State, Michael Gove. He serves on the Housing, Communities and Local Government Select Committee.
After studying physics at Sheffield Hallam University, Kevin joined Prudential as a branch manager which, at the time, was the largest estate agency in Britain. Discovering he enjoyed the fast moving and challenging nature of the business, five years later, in 1992, he and his original founding partner, John Waterhouse, started Hunters in Goodramgate.
He comments: "It was a tough time to start. Two months after opening our doors, we were hit by Black Wednesday when in one day interest rates went from ten per cent to 15 per cent. But we worked very hard and true to our name, hunted down every deal and we prayed that the market would improve. Eventually it did and we never looked back."
Today, Kevin remains Chairman of Hunters Estate Agents, which floated on the stock market in 2015 and is now one of the largest independent networks of sales and letting agents in the UK with over 200 branches nationwide, gross turnover in excess of £40m and approximately 1000 people employed throughout the network.
Commenting on his appointment to the TPO Conference panel of experts, Michael Stoop, Chair of TPO’s Industry Forum, comments: “Never more so than today are agents looking at what’s on the horizon and wondering exactly how it might affect their business. As someone who has been riding the waves of the property market for more than 30 years, and as a strong advocate of the small business sector, we are delighted to welcome Kevin’s expertise and experience to the panel.”
Kevin Hollinrake MP, will also be joined on the panel by:-
• Lord Richard Best, OBE DL, Chair of MHCLG’s Regulation of Property Agents Working Group
• Mark Prisk, Former Housing Minister and MP for Hertford and Stortford
• Theresa Wallace, Head of Customer Service and Compliance for Savills
• Kate Faulkner, Property Market Analyst/Commentator and Managing Director of Designs on Property
To book tickets for this year’s TPO conference on 10th July, visit: https://www.tpos.co.uk/members/tpo-conference
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NOTES TO THE EDITOR
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Notes to the editor:
What is The Property Ombudsman?
The Property Ombudsman (TPO) scheme offers an independent and impartial dispute resolution service to consumers who have been unable to resolve their disputes with a registered agent. The scheme was established in 1990. The Ombudsman can provide redress to place the consumer back in the position they were before the complaint arose, achieving a full and final settlement of the dispute and all claims made by either party. Where appropriate, the Ombudsman can make compensatory awards in individual cases up to a maximum of £25,000 for actual and quantifiable loss and/or for aggravation, distress and/or inconvenience caused by the actions of a registered agent.
TPO is funded through membership subscriptions and case fees and is free to all consumers.
At 31 December 2018 over 15,818 sales offices and 14,746 letting offices were registered with TPO.
Independence
Whilst TPO charges registered agents an annual subscription, the Ombudsman is accountable to the TPO Board which is chaired by a member of the House of Lords and with the majority of its members being independent from the industry.
The Ombudsman is not a regulator and does not have the authority to take regulatory or legal action against a registered agent. However, registered agents can be referred to the TPO Compliance Committee, which has the power to expel agents from the scheme and/or report them to the appropriate authorities, with the power to ban agents from carrying out estate agency business.
Further information
The Ombudsman's Terms of Reference, Codes of Practice, Consumer Guides and other documents about the operation of the scheme are available on our website (www.tpos.co.uk), together with previous annual and interim reports, case summaries, further explanation of governance arrangements and a full list of registered agents.
For more information about TPO, please visit our website at www.tpos.co.uk