In recent days, Curo residents have been contacting both The Journal and local councillors about proposals by the social housing organisation to increase its service and management charges from next April.

As part of its consultation on the changes, an event was held last week at Midsomer Norton Town Hall, where residents could find out more and give their views.

Curo says it is taking stock of all of its service charges to treat everyone equally and to share out costs for services such as grounds maintenance, estate electricity and external maintenance of properties, such as window cleaning and other repairs. But for some residents, this will see a hike in weekly fees, which will be capped at £5 per week until 2020. Some are currently only paying pence.

Curo says: ‘Our proposed changes will ensure all tenants are treated equally and asked to contribute fairly for services that we can no longer afford to subsidise’. A situation, it says, that has partly come from historic lease agreements and will result in everyone being on a universal footing. Those that are eligible for housing benefit will have their service charge covered.

The Government recently announced that Housing Associations would have to remove 1% from residents’ bills and some say this is a way of recouping this money, something a Curo spokesperson denied last week.

A reader from Welton contacted The Journal to say that her charge would increase from around 85 pence per week to £1.27, with no visible communal area that could be identified to benefit from such a hike. She said: “It is very important that residents give their views on this.

“If Curo don’t know of our concerns, then they cannot address them. It might not seem like a large increase to some, but over a year, it makes a big difference. Everyone is up in arms about it, and I don’t think it is fair.”

Others argue that communal areas are not being maintained, despite paying service charges, or that there are reported disputes with B&NES Council over who is responsible for maintenance. Some have also complained that they may have to pay a service charge from which private residents will seemingly benefit. Speaking to The Journal this week, a local councillor said: “Perhaps all tenants who are having this charge taken from their fixed, low incomes could treat this as an opportunity – now that their ‘communal service charges’ are to be itemised and visible, I would urge all tenants to hold Curo to account and require a far higher standard of service and to complain if standards drop.”

B&NES Councillor, Eleanor Jackson (Labour, Westfield), attended last week’s Midsomer Norton consultation. She said: “I have received indignant letters from all over the Somer Valley on this issue. One Westfield resident pointed out that his contract, which he signed in 1999, says nothing about charges.

“I am therefore urging the new Chair of the Housing Scrutiny Panel to investigate, and suggesting to the Westfield and Radstock residents I know that they invoke their rights under Labour’s ‘right to manage’ legislation to form residents’ management companies and take on the management of the communal assets and outside areas themselves, and where there are allotments involved, get Parish Councils to run them.”

Curo has said that it is reviewing and retendering its maintanence contracts and that it would like to hear from residents, so that it can draw up a clearer picture of what is needed and where to provide a better service.

It is also increasing its management charge, which relates to the administration cost of providing services to homeowners (currently charged at 15% of the service cost), placing properties into one of five fee bands, expected to be implemented in 2019/20, reviewed annually. Those in Band B will see charges rise by £50 over three years, with the highest rise in Band E, for sheltered accommodation, being £75 over the period – from £135 to £210 by April 2019.

The next consultation event is this Thursday, 27th October at the Curo office on Lower Bristol Road, Bath, from 5 p.m. – 8 p.m. There is a special service charge line for enquiries on: 01225 366596 or email: [email protected] The deadline for people to give their views is 30th November.

In its Annual Report ending March 2016, which is publicly available via its website, Curo says it manages 12,992 homes, 11,675 of which are social housing, and is building 200 – 300 new homes per year. It also has a major investment at Mulberry Park, Combe Down and the Foxhill regeneration site. In 2016, it reported an operating surplus of £16.7m, with revenue reserves standing at £119.6m at the end of March this year. The report also shows that there are eight more employees earning between £60,000 and £159,999 than in the previous year.

A spokesperson for Curo said this week: “Currently, some tenants pay service charges while others do not, and these customers are receiving services free of charge. Our proposed changes will ensure all tenants are treated equally and asked to contribute fairly for services that we can no longer afford to subsidise. We have written to all affected customers, organised face-to-face briefings and consultation events, and held briefings for all local councillors.”