Housing Sector

YouTube video by Housing Sector GSA Short – GreenSquareAccord Service Charge Failures

Over £41 million in Housing Benefit has been paid to GreenSquareAccord by local councils in just three years — yet residents are still being charged incorrectly.

youtube.com/shorts/e6nHJ...

#GreenSquareAccord #ServiceCharges

The Taxpayers Burden — Housing Sector An investigation into how millions of pounds in taxpayers’ money are paid to housing associations through Housing Benefit, with little evidence that councils are scrutinising or challenging the servic...

Over £41m in taxpayers’ money has been paid to a single housing association over the last three years.

That raises a simple question: what safeguarding exists once public money leaves the public purse?

www.housingsector.co.uk/blog/the-taxpayers-burden

#HousingBenefit #PublicMoney #Accountability

YouTube video by Housing Sector Housing Sector Podcast #63 – An Honest Conversation About Power, Cost, and Accountability

Service charges. Power. Accountability.

I’m joined by Hannah Howard-Jones MRICS to talk how housing really works, why residents are pushing back, and what’s broken in the system.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJqD...

#HousingSector #ServiceCharges

Thanks Martin!

For the many of us who don't subscribe to Inside Housing, would you consider writing a blog for the Housing Sector? This is very useful for residents, those who don't fund IH.

Tenants and residents deserve freedom of information Social landlords should be subject to the same transparency standards as local authorities, says Coniston House Tenants and Residents Association’s Martin Donkin

Scotland extended the Freedom of Information Act to RSLs. @matthewpennycookmp.bsky.social, in opposition, called for this for the rest of us, but in power is enacting the weak and narrow STAIRs. Why don’t we deserve what Scotland has? I write about this in @insidehousing.bsky.social

YouTube video by Housing Sector Housing Sector Podcast Preview #63

Coming up on this week’s Housing Sector Podcast: an honest conversation about service charges, accountability, and Social Tenant Access to Information Requests.

youtube.com/shorts/jh2w2...

#HousingSectorPodcast #ServiceCharges
#HousingAccountability #SocialHousing

The Teflon Cooke — GreenSquareAccord Residents

The Teflon Cooke - Housing mergers are sold as stability, scale, and resilience. For residents, they often deliver something very different.

www.greensquareaccordresidents.co.uk/the-teflon-c...

#GreenSquareAccord #RuthCooke

Troubled Mergers & Why They Should Trouble Us All — Housing Sector A detailed, evidence-led investigation into GreenSquareAccord under the leadership of Ruth Cooke following the 2021 merger, examining regulatory intervention, safety failures, Housing Ombudsman findin...

Housing mergers are sold as stability. From the inside, they often deliver the opposite. When they fail, residents live with the consequences. Leadership rarely does.

Why? Because failure is judged by finance, not people — and scale makes it survivable.

www.housingsector.co.uk/blog/trouble...

Wiltshire Council slams housing providers for poor standards Wiltshire Council is demanding better standards from housing associations.

"Wiltshire Council has criticised housing associations over living conditions in their properties.
...
It comes after reports of poor maintenance, excessive charges and residents being removed from properties for sale on open markets."
Green Square Accord.

bbc.co.uk/news/articles/…

YouTube video by Housing Sector Housing Sector - Did Guildford Borough Council Fit What Leaseholders Were Promised?

Did Guildford Borough Council fit what leaseholders were promised?

Serious questions about window specifications, procurement, and whether residents were charged for standards they didn’t receive — and the real human impact when works went wrong.

youtu.be/N_6vlWX2otg

#HousingSector

YouTube video by Housing Sector Housing Sector Podcast #62 Window Replacement & Safety Concerns - Guildford Borough Council

A routine window replacement went wrong.

Work stopped after asbestos checks hadn’t been done — after a window was already removed.

Questions over authorisation, safety, and accountability.

Watch now: www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPZG...

#HousingSector #HousingSectorPodcast #LocalGovernment #Guildford

What happens when a window replacement goes wrong?

A leaseholder and a former consultant describe safety concerns linked to Guildford Borough Council.

Full episode Wednesday, 7 a.m.

A small Christmas gift from the Housing Sector 🎄

The Housing Sector Dictionary has grown to almost 500 plain-English housing terms — built by residents and housing professionals to cut through jargon and make the sector easier to understand.

www.housingsector.co.uk/housing-sect...

The Gap Between Governance and Lived Experience — Housing Sector An evidence-led analysis of social housing data examining the gap between governance ratings and residents’ lived experience, drawing on Housing Ombudsman findings, tenant satisfaction measures, compl...

The last blog before Xmas looks at Tenant Satisfaction Measures, Housing Ombudsman findings, and Regulator of Social Housing governance grades are placed side by side — and the picture they paint when they don’t align.

www.housingsector.co.uk/blog/the-gap...

@ebrahimovic9566.bsky.social

Thanks for having me back on. It's nice to talk about data, insights and trends as well as seeing these from differing stakeholder perspectives.

YouTube video by Housing Sector Housing Sector Podcast #61 – The Gap Between Governance and Lived Experience with Ebrahim Goolamally

Housing Sector Podcast #61 looks at the gap between governance ratings and lived experience in social housing. Using Ombudsman findings and tenant satisfaction data, the episode explores why complaint handling is the sector’s critical fault line.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=XO1a...

Social Housing Action CampaignBeware the Brainless Inquisition By Ella Austen It’s a truth universally acknowledged that arrogance and idiocy frequently travel together. “Empty vessels make the most noise” says Shakespeare in Henry V. And while Plus Dane Housi…

SHAC Article

Our members are calling out landlord intimidation tactics. Here, Ella talks about her landlord, Plus Dane, who couldn't accept that tenants & residents might have legitimate complaints.

Landlords fear organised tenant & resident power. We welcome it.

shaction.org/2025/12/21/b...

Service Charge 2025 — GreenSquareAccord Residents

A Christmas Carol, the GSA Way…

Days before Christmas, families are threatened with eviction for lawfully asking to see service charge evidence under Section 22.

This isn’t about refusing to pay.
It’s about transparency.
Time to end the GSA Way.

www.greensquareaccordresidents.co.uk/sc25

Victor’s Battle. Guest Blog by Lindsay Bush — Housing Sector An elderly blind tenant challenges service charges while facing parallel Tribunal and County Court cases. This detailed account examines procedural failures, accessibility barriers, landlord responses...

I’ve published a detailed blog by Lindsay Bush, alongside a response from LJHA, examining process, accessibility, and how the system treats residents who persist.

www.housingsector.co.uk/blog/victors-battle-guest-blog-by-lindsay-bush

#HousingSector #SocialHousing #ServiceCharges #HousingSector

And what happens when Housing Associations claim that they are not bound by the 2010 Equalities Act?

As some are already doing?

YouTube video by Housing Sector Housing Sector Podcast #60 – A Sector in Denial: Service Charges, Safety, and Silence

Housing Sector Podcast #60 is live.

Unsafe homes, rising service charges, rushed mergers, and a sector in denial. An honest conversation with Melissa Little.

youtu.be/q_P-pIayKC8

#HousingSector #SocialHousing #ServiceCharges #HousingSafety #HousingAccountability

This video is a public request for #GreenSquareAccord to attend the site, inspect the fire alarm system, and resolve the fault as a matter of urgency. When safety issues arise, silence and delay are unacceptable.

#FireSafety #BuildingSafety #ResidentSafety #SocialHousing #UKHousing #RuthCooke

The Heating Hub vs Reality — GreenSquareAccord Residents A seven-year timeline of damp, mould and heating failures in a GreenSquareAccord property, backed by a 2022 independent surveyor’s report. This blog exposes the gap between GSA’s Heating Hub advice an...

Years of damp and mould show how far GSA’s Heating Hub claims are from reality. Why wait for Awaab’s Law? Just fix it.

www.greensquareaccordresidents.co.uk/the-heating-...

#SocialHousing #GreenSquareAccord #HousingSector #TenantVoice #ResidentExperience #Accountability #DampAndMould #AwaabsLaw

YouTube video by Housing Sector GreenSquareAccord – Service Charge Abuse Raised in PMQs

On 3 December, #GreenSquareAccord was named directly in Prime Minister’s Questions by Liberal Democrat MP Layla Moran during a discussion on service-charge abuse by housing associations.

youtu.be/oTrjZMlxYeA

The tenants forced to pay for their richer neighbours’ gyms | The Observer

More about how landlords are scamming tenants, residents, and the public purse. We are campaigning to stop it.

observer.co.uk/news/nationa...

Residents are literally laughing at #GreenSquareAccord’s repair performance — and it would be funny if homes weren’t cold, damp, unsafe, and unaffordable. Friday: a real damp and mould story they won’t welcome.

#HousingCrisis #SocialHousing #UKhousing

A response from Southern Housing.

The truth is out there, here, there and everywhere — Housing Sector This investigation exposes how UK housing associations rely on tenant satisfaction measures, curated panels and PR narratives while residents face unsafe, unaffordable and often unsellable homes. It c...

Southern Housing’s shared ownership video mocking sceptical residents shows how far the disconnect has gone. The Ombudsman is slow, the regulator has lost its bite, but residents are speaking out for themselves.

housingsector.co.uk/blog/the-truth-is-out-there-here-there-and-everywhere

Southern Housing has released a video mocking people who are sceptical of shared ownership. Given their own track record, it’s a staggering decision.

#SouthernHousing #SharedOwnership #HousingSector #TenantVoice #ResidentVoice #SocialHousing #HousingCrisis #Accountability

Interesting clash between a MP and one of the regulators within industry at a Parliamentary Select Committee.

@dailymail.co.uk @theguardian.com @bbcnewsnight.bsky.social @skynewsrss.bsky.social #regulation.