Eland House
Bressenden Place
London
SW1E 5DU
Cheryl Ladding / 13 February 2013
Dear Ms Ladding,
LAs and Leaseholders
Thank you for your e-mail requesting information on LAs and leaseholdersdated 18 January 2013 in which you pose a number of questions about local authorities.
You sent this e-mail to the Department’s Freedom of Information e-mail address. However, the Freedom of Information Act only provides for requests for recorded information, so we are not treating this as a request under that Act. Instead, here is some background on the Department’s policies relating to leaseholders and local authorities.
As a general comment, if the underlying issue is a concern that the service charges you are being asked to pay under the terms of your lease are unreasonable you may have the right to challenge these at an independent Leasehold Valuation Tribunal. The Leasehold Advisory Service (LEASE), a specialist body funded by Department for Communities and Local Government can advise on a wide range of residential leasehold issues. LEASE can be contacted at Maple House, 149 Tottenham Court Road, London, W1T 7BN, (telephone 0207 383 9800, e-mail ). Their website is at
More specifically, to address your first three questions we would need to know if you have any specific grants or funding streams in mind. If your questions relate to grants and policies relating to carbon savings or energy saving measures, you may wish to contact the Department of Energy and Climate Change, the Government department which leads on these issues.
Your fourth question is around how a leaseholder can check what carbon savings have been claimed on their properties by the council. This is a local matter and you may wish to approach the council for this information.
On your fifth question, about funding for insulation measures, we are not aware of such a scheme. I suggest that you might contact the Department of Energy and Climate Change about this.
On your final query about leaseholders being pushed into debt after substantial service charge bills for major works, social landlords have the power to reduce these bills to a minimum of £10,000 over any five year period under the Social Landlords Discretionary Reduction of Service Charges (England) Directions 1997. In considering whether to reduce bills the council must consider issues including whether the leaseholder knew about any likely charges before they brought their home and whether they are likely to suffer exceptional hardship in meeting the bill. In addition they can also help leaseholders, for example, by agreeing to spread payment for the charge over a longer period or by delaying payment until the property is sold.
I also attach a short fact sheet on local authority leaseholders, which you may find useful.
Yours sincerely,
Nick Allan