Liberal Democrats fight for residents against estate management charges

Recently announced Liberal Democrat candidate for Great Denham, Joanna Szaub-Newton said that estate management charges are "completely unfair for local residents" and called on the Conservative government to "hurry up and take action" to end them. At Full Council last night Joanna asked Mayor Dave Hodgson why the government have not made changes to estate management charges despite saying they would over 5 years ago.

Mayor Dave said "The charges are unfair full stop. The government are letting these companies get away with charging residents for services without transparency and sometimes appears to be at an exorbitant. The government's problem is they are not talking about stopping these charges but only restricting how high they can go.

"The real problem is the lack of funding in local government to look after these estates and the fact the government continues to give developers the power over finance and governance and precludes residents from meaningful involvement in their own estates."

Joanna responded "I agree that these charges are completely unfair for local residents. Though people are told about these when moving in, it does feel like the systems lacks transparency and accountability. I would encourage all councillors and residents to put pressure on local MPs and the government to hurry up and take action, so we can finally put end to these unfair charges."

At Full Council, the Liberal Democrats moved a motion calling on the government to take action to enable residents to seek redress and give local authorities powers to support residents in taking control of management companies. The motion was passed with unanimous support from the Council.