Action on Service Charges

Thank you to all the residents who attended Loughborough Voices’ second residents community meeting of the year at the Marcus Lipton Centre on 20th April! It’s always great to meet our neighbours, speak face to face with each other and learn about the various issues affecting residents under LEMB’s management. You can watch that in action here! The meeting was co-facilitated by Isaiah, a community organiser  at the Advocacy Academy, a social justice and youth charity in Brixton committed to social change and assisting folks with a lived experience of injustice in order to make that happen.  The main topic of this meeting was service charges. This is an issue that has been raised repeatedly in Loughborough Voices spaces, and an issue that impacts every resident. We all contribute to the costs of running the estate through service charges. However, amongst residents there are significant concerns over how and where these funds are being spent. Service charges include items such as; concierge services, estate cleanings, grounds maintenance, repairs and maintenance, CCTV and pest control. Despite residents paying a year on year increase, many of these services have been reduced or simply not delivered by LEMB. Some residents have successfully been refunded service charges, which brings us to the question; if one resident has been refunded for a service that hasn’t been delivered, why are their neighbours still being charged for it? At the meeting we provided residents with a draft letter to Lambeth requesting information on and proof of delivery of the services included in the service charge. Residents filled out the letters with their own information and these letters will be delivered to Lambeth Council after the upcoming local elections. These letters form the first step towards a service charge complaint. It will also provide us with valuable information on who LEMB are paying and what services have or haven’t been delivered. This is an important step in our demand for transparency and accountability from LEMB, and is directly related to some of Loughborough Voices core concerns about of services provision and financial management under LEMB. Finally we would like to extend a huge thank you to all the volunteers who helped plan and promote the meeting; together, we managed to post a flyer to every home on the estate! If you would like to submit your own service charge letter or request by email, see instructions below: Click here for the template email you can send yourself! Make sure to send to:[email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Just fill it out and get it sent off! Have a good bank holiday weekend! Loughborough Voices