By a Beam Park Resident For too long, housing associations like L&Q have relied on a classic strategy to avoid accountability: division. By putting residents into different boxes—leaseholders, shared owners, market renters, and social tenants—they keep us isolated. If one group complains, they treat it as an individual, tenure-specific issue. But at Beam Park, the… Continue reading Failed by L&Q – The Need for Unity to Fix a Broken Housing System
Leaseholders at High Point Village in Hayes are calling for an urgent reduction in service charges as rising bills, heating network repairs and uncertainty over future costs leave residents struggling to afford their homes. According to a briefing prepared by leaseholders, annual charges for a typical one-bedroom flat have reached £7,834 in 2026, compared with… Continue reading “A Second Mortgage”: High Point Village Leaseholders Call for Action Over Soaring Charges
A Statement from SHAC A massive housing crisis is shaking the Spanish state. It sends a clear warning to our own government. The housing emergency will lead to unrest, and it needs a fundamental plan to end the commercialisation of our homes. As soaring costs push Spanish working-class communities to the brink, a powerful mass… Continue reading Lessons from Spain: Organising to Fight the Housing Emergency
By Lindsay Bush The Post Office Horizon Inquiry has done something that tenants and residents rarely see in housing: it has stepped back from thousands of individual experiences and asked whether they were actually signs of a much bigger system failure. The Inquiry did not just investigate faulty computer software. It examined how complaints were… Continue reading Does Housing Need Its Own Horizon-Style Inquiry?
Grenfell United, the group representing the bereaved and survivors, has called on Barnet Group to reverse its appointment of the former housing director of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (RBKC) at the time of the Grenfell fire. Barnet Group is the council's wholly owned housing company and the appointment has deeply angered survivors… Continue reading Standing With Survivors: SHAC Joins Grenfell United Demand That Barnet Sacks Laura Johnson
By Olivia Virag An Ordinary Question When I moved into my shared ownership home in July 2020, I wasn't looking for a campaign or preparing for a legal dispute. Like most people, I simply wanted a place to call home. At the age of 50, after many years of renting shared accommodation, home ownership had… Continue reading I Thought I Was Just Checking My Service Charges
By David Wood On 11 August 2026, a representative of Peabody Trust stood in Thames Magistrates' Court and pleaded guilty to a criminal offence: failing, without reasonable excuse, to provide a leaseholder with a written summary of service charge costs. Peabody was fined £1,000, reduced from £1,500 because of its guilty plea, plus £400 victim… Continue reading Peabody Was Convicted. It Took a Resident to Make it Happen
By SHAC and Geri Girardi Notting Hill Genesis (NHG) has lost a First Tier Tribunal Case after attempting to recover historic major works costs by raiding the residents' reserve fund. The decision of the First-tier Tribunal raises important questions about how registered social landlords recover the cost of major works from leaseholders. But it also… Continue reading Notting Hill Woes: Residents Win Legal Battle Over Historic Repair Costs
On Friday 10th July, SHAC received fresh communication from the National Audit Office (NAO), for the first time concurring with SHAC that there is a serious gap in regulatory oversight when it comes to service charges paid by councils using Housing Benefit, although they do not agree with all our conclusions. For some tenants, the… Continue reading Service Charge Abuse: Audit Office Validates SHAC Risk Evidence and Campaigners Win Landmark Ruling
By David Wood I became a banker in 2007. The lesson I took from the financial crisis was not that banks should cease to exist. It was that systems which appear robust on paper can contain weaknesses that only become visible when the system is stressed. Safeguards should be tested rather than assumed. Looking at… Continue reading The Three Closed Doors: A Stress Test of Leasehold Accountability
