Information rights of English tenants
There are two upcoming schemes that will allow some tenants in England to get more information about their service charges:
- a reactive scheme like Freedom of Information, but for private sector bodies ("LAFRA Part 4")
- a pro-active publication scheme for certain social landlords ("STAIRs")
LAFRA Part 4
LAFRA is the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024.
It imposes upon landlords, including private landlords such as housing associations, a Freedom of Information -like scheme for information about service charges.
The LAFRA scheme applies to all tenants, not just leaseholders and not just social tenants, and has stiff and meaningful civil fines for violations. It will replace a regime where non-social tenants can only enforce their information rights (e.g. sections 21 and 22 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985) by private prosecution (and social tenants cannot enforce their rights at all). You can't recover the ~£8000 costs of private prosecutions under the current regime, which is a red rag encouraging abuse. It will apply to landlords across the board, rather than the current scheme which effectively places councils and housing associations above the law.
A rebel Tory amendment to retain the old regime alongside the new FOIA-style one, and put social tenants on an equal footing with private ones, was defeated on the last day of Parliament before the 2024 election.
It's not clear when it will come into force, but likely within the next two years.
STAIRs
STAIRs is the Social Tenant Access to Information Requirements.
Obviously this basically applies only to social tenants, and only to regulated providers of social housing.
It comes into force in April 2027. It's a regulatory requirement from the Regulator of Social Housing, imposed by the government using section 197 of the Housing and Regeneration Act 2008. I suspect this will be very weak, because the penalties for ignoring the regulator's standards don't result in meaningful payouts to tenants whose rights are violated. But in theory it will lead to the pro-active regular publication of comparable data.