18th October 2025
| In this issue: – Housing Union: Conference report and next steps – Opposing rent increases with Labour Campaign for Council Housing – Member Campaigns |
| Conference Agrees to Build a National, Democratic Housing Union More than 100 people joined the conference last weekend – in person and online – to discuss forming a national tenants and residents (housing) union. Our thanks to all who attended, helped out, and made the conference both interesting and successful. The event provides the basis for forming an independent steering group that can transform the vision into reality, with a smaller taskforce to help with research, engagement and communications. To see more about the project, please see the conference report, or visit our Housing Union page. We have published a form to sign up for the steering group and/or taskforce here. Although some people don’t have capacity to get involved in the work of the steering group, all can help to popularise the idea, discussing it with other campaign groups, or sharing our articles and messages on social media. Please like and share: Bluesky ~ Twitter ~ Facebook ~ Instagram |
  Labour Campaign for Council HousingNo to 10 years of above inflation rent increases Despite decades of austerity, government is implementing a policy of 10 years of above inflation rent increases (CPI+1%) for council and housing association tenants, and has reintroduced ‘rent convergence’ which also pushes rents upwards. Rent convergence is when expensive and cheap rents gradually move closer together over time. SHAC has signed a joint letter led by the Labour Campaign for Council Housing opposing the rent rises. All signatories have committed to campaigning for the government to abandon above inflation rent increases and ‘rent convergence’ and to scrap unaffordable “Affordable Rent” (up to 80% of market rent). Read the article and download the full letter here. |
| Member Campaigns |
 Sign Here Petition: Stop Age UK Selling Donated Retirement Homes Woodcot (home for the elderly) was donated to Age UK on condition that it was kept as a residential home for the elderly. Now, the charity is proposing to sell the home for a huge profit. Our members are involved in opposing the sale of vitally important specialist housing and have launched a petition here. |
 Read Here Shared Ownership: Case Briefing Our member Sue Phillips who runs the Shared Ownership Resources website has co-authored a briefing on two First Tier Property Tribunal rulings of importance. The related rulings concern service charges levied to shared ownership leaseholders at Viridian Apartments (Notting Hill Genesis). In this briefing, Sue Phillips and Jennifer Docherty of Housing Quality Network explain the background to the two cases, the main issues, the tribunal’s decisions, what happens next and the implications for both housing providers and shared owners. Read more here. |
| Dates For Your Diary |
 SHAC Action Update Meeting Our next monthly SHAC meeting will hear updates on all our campaigns and is open to all members. It is an opportunity for you to share any campaigns or actions you are organising to challenge bad practice by your landlord. Please join us. 6.30pm, Thursday 20 November 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. |
 Sign Here Please share: Bluesky ~ Twitter ~ Facebook ~ Instagram Parliamentary Petition: Service Charges SHAC is lobbying MPs asking them to support legal reforms and to highlight service charge abuse in Parliament. As part of this, we have launched a Parliamentary petition demanding legal changes to allow disputed service charges to be paid to the courts and only passed onto landlords if they can prove the legitimacy of the bills. Otherwise, the money is returned to the tenant or resident. To get this in place, it is not enough to just sign the petition, we need everyone to share it in their networks: friends, tenant and resident groups, colleagues at work, within your trade union, and across any social media platforms you use. |
| Join our WhatsApp Communities SHAC Campaigns Tribunals Support | SHAC Leaseholders & Shared Owners | Housing Ombudsman Payment Strike Clarion | Hyde | MTVHA | Notting Hill Genesis | Riverside / One Housing | L&Q | Southern | Peabody | Guinness | Home Group | THCH | A2 Dominion | Sanctuary | SNG Council Housing Tenants & Residents | Private Corporate Landlords |
 Nextdoor Network – Recruit to SHAC Join Nextdoor 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. It will help to raise awareness of SHAC’s work and to encourage more recruits to lobby the Government and get our voices heard. 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. |