Spearheaded by Mark McLaren, an ex-legal affairs manager at the consumer group Which?, the claim is being made against Barratt Redrow, Bellway, the Berkeley Group, Bloor Homes, Persimmon, Taylor Wimpey and the Vistry Group.

The action against the building companies arrives after Which? accepted binding commitments in 2025 from the companies that they would not collude to share information, The Times reports. 

In a deal secured during October, the Competition and Markets Authority said that the seven had agreed to carry out a £100 million payment that would be divided between affordable housing programmes across the UK’s four nations. 

According to lawyers for the claimant, the legal action had been carried out on behalf of over 700,000 people who bought new-build homes in the UK during October 2015 to 24 June 2026.

McLaren’s claim is currently awaiting approval from the Competition Appeal Tribunal before it can go ahead.

McLaren, who is being represented by the law firms Geradin Partners and Hausfeld said: “Buying a home is one of the biggest financial commitments most of us will make.

““[If] housebuilders shared sensitive pricing and sales information with one another instead of competing properly, homeowners across Great Britain may well have been left out of pocket as a result.”

Scott Campbell, a partner at Hausfeld, said the class action for consumer claims, which became effective by legislation in England and Wales in 2015, was significant because “for most homeowners, bringing an individual claim simply isn’t realistic, as the cost and complexity put it out of reach”.

Campbell also said the legislation gives “a practical route for hundreds of thousands of consumers to seek compensation where they may otherwise have had no way of doing so”.

According to a spokesman for McLaren’s legal team, the claim was being pursued on a conditional fee basis that was supported by a litigation funding company, which has not been named. 

If McLaren wins at the tribunal or agrees to a major settlement, the lawyers and the funders could get millions of pounds in payments.

Berkeley and Taylor Wimpey declined to comment on the legal action, and the other companies were approached for comment, according to The Times.