A National Housing Union: 
Preparing the Next Steps

The Blueprint - The first version of the National Housing Union Blueprint - a document that expands substantially on the vision statement we began with - has been completed and consulted on. As well as comments from those who signed up to the Steering and Taskforce groups, we held extremely helpful discussions with London Renters' Union, Greater Manchester Tenants Union, and Stuart Hodkinson of the Manchester Social Housing Commission. As a result, version two is now being prepared for wider circulation.

The Unions - The Blueprint will be presented to the TUC, the largest annual gathering of trade unions taking place this September in Brighton. This is an expensive undertaking but we’re delighted to announce that significant funding has been generously donated by two SHAC members who wish to remain anonymous but who deserve a huge thanks from us all.

The Vision - The financial support will help us print the Blueprint, host a stall inside the hall, and run a launch meeting. All critical for making sure tenants' and residents' voices are presented to a key national audience. The involvement of members in the development of the Blueprint means that we have an authoritative vision of how the labour movement can help empower tenants and residents.

Government Takes Note - We have been invited by the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government's Social Housing Directorate to explain what the National Housing Union is all about, and will do so at their meeting on the 17th September.

End Service Charge Abuse: Legal Action and Political Lobbying

Legal Action We finally finished crunching the data from our 2026 survey into the scale and impact of service charge abuse. With thanks to everyone who took time to complete and share the survey. The information has now been passed to the barrister, and we will be meeting with our solicitors at the Public Interest Law Centre to make progress on our legal action. The full survey results will also be published and publicised soon.

Political Lobbying and the National Audit Office (NAO) We submitted a second formal request to the NAO to ask it to investigate systematic abuse of service charges and the Housing Benefit system following our detailed research and data. This report highlighted a significant lack of oversight and a substantial loss of public funds. Our request was supported by John McDonnell, MP for Hayes and Harlington.

In its response to SHAC and John McDonnell on 5 May, the NAO once again declined to launch a full investigation, but conceded that SHAC’s new evidence raised "important" questions regarding the Department for Work & Pensions' (DWP) scrutiny of the service charges it funds. The NAO has committed to asking the DWP to scrutinise their data collection methods and promised to update us once these inquiries conclude. This misses the point entirely but we will continue to keep lobbying. You can read the full letter here, and see more about the campaign here.

Lord Best Meeting On 29 April 2026, SHAC met Lord Best to discuss how evidence of service charge abuse and overcharging can be taken more seriously by government. Lord Best was impressed by SHAC’s findings and reports, noting on several occasions that he had initially assumed the work had been produced by a professional research team rather than our army of volunteers. He offered advice on engaging the Housing Minister and expressed interest in SHAC’s objectives. We will consider his suggestions and may arrange a further meeting in due course.

Parliamentary Committee We also sent our research and an appeal to the Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee to make an inquiry into service charge abuse. They have likewise declined to take any action at present but said that it "regularly considers proposals for new inquiries and one-off evidence sessions, and, in the event that the Committee launches an inquiry that is relevant to your concerns, you would be welcome to submit written evidence setting out SHAC’s views."


Our lobbying and legal challenge continue.

Shared Ownership: Political Lobbying

In March, SHAC wrote to Housing Minister Matthew Pennycook, about improving staircasing outcomes for shared ownership buyers. We stressed that reforms should apply retrospectively to all existing shared ownership leases, that premiums should be based on the value of the property at the time it was purchased, not the current market value of the property, that rent paid should reduce the premium, and that landlord's legal fees should not be paid by tenants.

This week, Mr Pennycook replied saying that some reforms are in place for newly built shared ownership homes, including greater consideration to long-term affordability, more transparency and fairness on costs, ensuring fees do not generate a profit, and the ability to opt out of fees for some services. See our letter here and Pennycook's reply here. As usual, they declined our request for a meeting.

SHAC Art Space: Zine and Artworks

Some new additions have been added to our Art Space. The first is an online 'zine' curated by Arti Dillon but with diverse contributors. Entitled Jobs, Homes, Services not Racism it offers a focal point for analyzing material conditions such as the housing crisis and austerity that fuel social division, and features poems, a film and artworks. See here.

We also have three digital artworks by Bidz Millner that address excessive executive pay and poor service at Places for People. See here.

If you have artworks you would like to submit, please use the online form on the Art Space web page.

SHAC Monthly Meeting

Our regular monthly meetings provide an opportunity to hear updates on our campaigning and action, and to share any actions you are taking to hold your landlord to account.

Please join us for the next meeting:

6.30pm, Thursday 21st May

Zoom link - passcode 459809

Add the date to your calendar here. You can find details of all SHAC events here.