Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether she has issued recent guidance to housing associations on the level of contribution they should make to estate service management fees.

The Department has not issued recent guidance around the level of contribution Housing Associations make to estate management fees.

Housing Associations may be responsible for managing communal areas on estates that they own, and the extent to which they can pass on the costs of such maintenance to leaseholders and tenants will depend on the terms of the lease and tenancy agreements.

The Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 includes measures designed to drive up the transparency of service charges to make them more easily challengeable if leaseholders consider them to be unreasonable.

The government is committed to acting quickly to implement the provisions of the Act. Further detail can be found in the written ministerial statement published on Thursday 21 November (HCWS244).