Why have my service charges increased?
The economy is still challenging. Although costs for utilities have gone down this year, gas and electricity prices are higher than in previous years.
Whilst we always work to ensure the best value for money for our customers, wider pressures mean that the cost of delivering some services, for example grounds maintenance or providing fire safety equipment, have increased. In some cases, costs have increased for delivering essential building safety services and we have contacted customers separately to provide more detail around this.
Some customers may see an increase in charges for grounds maintenance, cleaning and waste management services. In 2023, we brought most of these inhouse with these moving over from external contractors to our Onward Environmental team.
The cost of delivering these types of services have increased due to economic pressures beyond our control. For example, vehicle costs, equipment costs and tipping costs are all much higher than they were in previous years. But these costs would have been significantly higher if we had carried on using our external contractors rather than bringing services inhouse.
We also provide services to external communal areas, for example maintaining car parks and external lighting. We now have more accurate data that captures the full costs of delivering these services and as a result in some cases you may see changes in your service charges in this area.
We understand that the cost of living continues to be a challenge and if you are concerned about increases, or would like to discuss these, please get in touch.