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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps she is taking to ensure that the maintenance charges charged by affordable housing associations do not limit people’s ability to engage with the affordable housing scheme.

The government recognise the considerable financial strain that rising services charges are placing on leaseholders and tenants of social housing.

The level of service charge that leaseholders and tenants pay depends on many factors and what those service charges cover will be set out in the terms of the lease and the tenancy agreement.

For tenants, service charges typically cover services, with the costs of repairs and maintenance paid for through the rental income social housing providers receive. Government regulates the maximum rent that Registered Providers of social housing can charge for their Social Rent and Affordable Rent homes.

By law, variable service charges must be reasonable. Should leaseholders and tenants of private registered providers of social housing wish to contest the reasonableness of their service charges, they may make an application to the appropriate tribunal.

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. Once commenced, these will ensure all leaseholders receive minimum key financial and non-financial information on a regular basis, including introducing a standardised service charge demand form and an annual report.

The government is committed to acting quickly to implement the provisions of the Act. Further detail can be found in the Written Ministerial Statement made on Thursday 21 November 2024 (HCWS244).

My Department does not collect data on the number of times that maintenance payments have resulted in people moving out of affordable housing. However, it does collect data on the number of households evicted from local authority owned dwellings due to rent arrears, anti-social behaviour, both or neither (information can be found at MHCLG Live Table 603 here). Furthermore, the Regulator of Social Housing collects data on the number of households evicted by private registered providers of social housing due to rent arrears, anti-social behaviour, both or neither (information can be found in additional Table 3.12 on gov.uk here.

Social housing tenants and shared owners struggling with rent and service charge costs may be able to receive support through Housing Benefit or the housing element of Universal Credit.

Under the new model lease, shared owners benefit from a 10 year ‘Initial Repair Period’ where their landlord contributes towards essential repairs. This does not cover service charges but does protect shared owners from unexpected repair costs.