| In this edition: – End Service Charge Abuse – Update and Call to Action – Trade Union Members Call to Action – SHAC in the News – Inside Housing and Yorkshire Live – Hyde and Tower Hamlets Community Housing Merger |
 Legal Project Update The strategic legal project which is supported by the Public Interest Law Centre has reached the end of its first stage. A legal bundle is ready to go to the National Audit Office (NAO) on Tuesday. The first phase of the project involved a huge amount of work by an army of members and we are very grateful to all. With special thanks to Lindsay for dedicating hours and energy to the project. Our formal request to the NAO is that they review the payments made by the benefits system to cover service charges as these are currently just paid on demand without any scrutiny as to their validity. The request has been supported by a total of 26 MPs and we will share their letter in the next newsletter. We recognise that this action only challenges one aspect of service charge problems. This is because the legal pathways are very limited – after all, the landlord class has easy access to government. However, the accompanying publicity will do a great deal to shine a spotlight on service charge abuse generally and will significantly boost the campaign. Our aim is to change legislation and enforcement mechanisms. Two national newspapers are currently considering publishing our recent research and the strategic legal action. We will share articles as they are published. Call to Action! If you haven’t already done so, please sign and share our petitions: Parliamentary petitionPetitionFacebookTwitterInstagramBluesky Change.org petitionPetitionFacebookBlueSkyTwitterInstagram |
 Call to Action – Trade Union Members – Housing Crisis Workplace Impact Survey Thanks to all who have completed our survey – it is off to a strong start. Now we need to share it in trade union branches and ask them to cascade it to all members. The proposed text is: SHAC Workplace Impact Survey Housing campaign group SHAC is conducting a survey about the impact of the housing crisis in the workplace. The aim is to capture data that can help more easily target trade union resources towards the right support for members, as well as providing campaign data. The survey is completely anonymous. It asks about the impact of rising rents, as well as illness and injury triggered by bad housing which leads to workplace absence. Please help by cascading the survey to all members in the branch: www.shaction.org/housing-in-the-workplace-survey/ |
| SHAC in the News |
 Inside Housing – Service Charges This week, Inside Housing covered reports of a 15% jump in service charges over the last year, which is way above the inflation levels used by landlords as an excuse for the increases. We put this together with SHAC’s research into First Tier Property Tribunals which showed that 72% of service charge accounts were riddled with overcharges. Together they tell a powerful story about how tenants and residents are being systematically fleeced. Please like and share – Facebook – Bluesky – Twitter – Instagram  Yorkshire Live – Disrepairs Will Grimmond and Yorkshire Live invited SHAC to comment on the increasing failure of public housing maintenance. This is not only devastating for those who live in the properties, but costs the economy in healthcare and absence from work. There will of course have been far more than 79 occasions that landlords failed to make repairs. These are just the ones that made it all the way to an Ombudsman ruling. The vast majority of people give up in despair because the path is so torturous. Please like and share – Facebook – Bluesky – Twitter – Instagram |
 Hyde & Tower Hamlets Community Housing Merger – Joint Meeting Members of Tower Hamlets Community Housing (THCH) have received letters confirming that their landlord will be merging with Hyde Housing from 1st April 2025. We knew this was on the cards, but all objections from members of both landlords have been ignored. The concerns relate mainly to THCH’s financial instability and potential to destabilise Hyde. There are also concerns about the poor quality of Hyde’s service delivery, which will be ‘out of the frying pan and into the fire’ for THCH members. Online Meeting We have scheduled an online meeting at 7pm on Tuesday 25th March 2025 to discuss a joint response. Everyone should have received an email with the Zoom link, but if you haven’t, please contact shac.action@gmail.com. Joint WhatsApp Group We also have a joint THCH and Hyde WhatsApp so that members of both landlords can exchange information and agree actions. Join the WhatsApp here. |
| 2025 Meeting and Protest Dates |
 Meeting: 6.30pm ~ Wednesday 5th March Social Housing Online Exhibition Inspired by Carl Davis’s article on the Hard Graft exhibition, we aim to curate an online exhibition showing both the positive and negative impact on tenants and residents of living in social housing. Our meeting will begin the planning process and is open to all interested. 6.30pm ~ Wednesday 5th March Zoom Link ~ ID: 832 8333 4555 ~ Passcode: 337269 Add to calendar |
 Housing Protest: 11am, Wednesday 26th March, Parliament Housing coalition Homes for All is inviting everyone to join a housing protest and lobby of Parliament. The coalition, which includes SHAC, is calling for government action to ease the housing crisis such as rent controls and mass council house building, fully funded through a wealth tax. You can download the flyer here. |
 SHAC Campaign Update Meeting Our monthly SHAC meetings report on progress across all campaigns and allow members to share actions and events: 6.30pm, Thursday 20th March 2025 Zoom link ~ ID: 823 4952 0596 ~ Passcode: 656982 Add to calendar The times and dates for all 2025 monthly meetings are all available on our Events page. |
 Join Nextdoor Nextdoor Network Posting a message on the Nextdoor app is one great way to encourage tenants and residents from your landlord (or other housing associations) to join SHAC and build critical strength. Nextdoor is a Facebook-style social networking site that links people in the same locality. You can find out more and get set up here. Some of our members have been very successful in using it to raise awareness of SHAC’s work, in one case getting 1,800 views for a single post, and recruiting neighbours who are also residents of her landlord. |
| Join our themed and landlord WhatsApp groups SHAC Campaigns | Tribunals Support | SHAC Leaseholders & Shared OwnersClarion | Hyde | MTVHA | Notting Hill Genesis | Riverside / One Housing | L&Q Southern | Peabody | Guinness | Home Group | Councils | THCH | A2 Dominion | Housing Ombudsman Action |