Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if he will make it his policy to (a) require housing associations to provide greater transparency on how service charges are calculated and (b) provide leaseholders with additional rights to challenge unfair increases in service charges.

The Government strongly believes that service charges should be reasonable, transparent and communicated effectively for both tenants and leaseholders. We are committed to better protecting and empowering leaseholders by giving them more information on what their costs pay for. We will also seek to prevent unjustified legal fees when challenging costs. This will help them more effectively challenge their landlord if they consider their fees are unreasonable. We are due to bring forward further leasehold reforms later in this parliament.

With regard specifically to social housing tenants living in housing associations I refer the Hon. Member to the oral answers given on 27 March 2023 (Official Report, HC, Volume 730, Column 644) and to the answers given to Question UIN 114788 on 13 January 2023 and Question UIN 86547 on 23 November 2022.