Peabody Housing Association

That this House notes with concern the standard of customer service and engagement provided by Peabody Housing Association; expresses its disappointment that responses to enquiries to the association are not forthcoming to either its customers or their Members of Parliament; agrees with tenants and leaseholders of the association that it is unacceptable that they continue to find themselves having no method of recourse to challenge irregularly large service charge increases; regrets that the Chief Executive Ian McDermott has repeatedly ignored correspondence asking for justification for above inflation increases to service charges; further notes with alarm the reports in the Financial Times that The Residents Scrutiny Panel for Peabody revealed in June 2022, that 87 per cent of respondents viewed increases as unreasonable, and that two-thirds of residents who queried service charge levels were found to have been overcharged; calls on the Peabody Housing Association to respond promptly to enquiries from its customers and their Members of Parliament; and calls on the Secretary of State for the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities to invite Peabody Housing Association to answer for its failures in customer service and engagement.