SHAC: The Social Housing Action Campaign
@shacaction.bsky.social
SHAC is a campaign group linking tenants, renters, shared owners, and leaseholders living in homes owned by social and private landlords. Together we campaign for more public housing & to improve housing conditions.
The government is wrong to rule out rent caps in the private sector, just as it was wrong to pledge social rent increases above inflation. shaction.org/2026/07/28/t...
Social Housing Action CampaignThe Double Squeeze: Government’s Rent Failure
Government’s Two-Front Rent Failure Betrays British Tenants Housing Secretary Angela Rayner’s explicit decision to rule out private rent controls, coupled with the government’s policy a…
shaction.org
SHAC and Members in the News: "In a court ruling, Judge Elizabeth Cooke said that the leaseholders could not be required to pay service charges for parts of the development ... which they were not entitled to use." This is the crazy world of #ServiceChargeAbuse. telegraph.co.uk/money/proper...
telegraph.co.uk
SHAC Article: Service Charge Abuse: Audit Office Validates SHAC Risk Evidence and Campaigners Win Landmark Ruling shaction.org/2026/07/14/s... #EndServiceChargeAbuse
Social Housing Action CampaignService Charge Abuse: Audit Office Validates SHAC Risk Evidence and Campaigners Win Landmark Ruling
On Friday 10th July, SHAC received fresh communication from the National Audit Office (NAO), for the first time concurring with SHAC that there is a serious gap in regulatory oversight when it come…
shaction.org
SHAC Article - A Pensioner’s Fight Against Housing Injustice shaction.org/2026/07/13/a... "Last year I experienced a retaliatory eviction ... It is part of a pattern. Since 2021, I have been forced to move three times." Join SHAC's project to end housing injustice for all. #NationalHousingUnion.
Social Housing Action CampaignA Pensioner’s Fight Against Housing Injustice
By June Atkinson Last year I experienced a retaliatory eviction. It happened when the landlord and rental agency asked me to pay for repairs. It was illegal, but I had little protection because the…
shaction.org
SHAC Article: Over 100 Southwark Families Face Eviction from Former Notting Hill Genesis Homes 🚨 shaction.org/2026/07/08/a... Corporate landlord BMR Group Ltd bought the homes from social landlord NHG. Residents are fighting back, demanding action from Southwark Council. #NoEvictions
Social Housing Action CampaignA Community Under Threat: Southwark Families Fight Mass Evictions
Housing Campaigners Demand Council Action as Corporate Landlord BMR Group Targets More Than 100 Families Tenants on the St James Estate in the London Borough of Southwark are fighting mass eviction…
shaction.org
Our Blueprint for a national housing union is here. You can leave your feedback on the page too to share your views. The housing emergency and lack of access to justice for tenants and residents are well-documented. We need a mass, national, democratic union. shaction.org/a-national-h...
Blueprint for a National Housing Union
A National Housing Union for All Tenants and Residents The housing emeergency and lack of access to justice for tenants and residents are both well-documented. Our solution is a mass, national, dem…
shaction.org
*SHAC Article - The Three Closed Doors: A Stress Test of Leasehold Accountability* shaction.org/2026/06/25/t... David Wood offers a sharp analysis of the systems that were supposed to keep tenants and residents safe from landlord exploitation. Verdict: They are completely failing.
Social Housing Action CampaignThe Three Closed Doors: A Stress Test of Leasehold Accountability
By David Wood I became a banker in 2007. The lesson I took from the financial crisis was not that banks should cease to exist. It was that systems which appear robust on paper can contain weaknesse…
shaction.org
Big Issue founder urges action on empty homes: 'What are we going to do about boarded-up houses?' buff.ly/jolMQcw @marisharay.bsky.social @libhousing.bsky.social @gideonamos.bsky.social @libdemlocalgov.bsky.social @laylamoran.bsky.social @shacaction.bsky.social @bigissue.com
Labour urged to act on empty homes in Social Housing Bill
Labour’s Social Housing Bill is aiming to limit Right to Buy rules but Lord John Bird has urged ministers to take action on empty homes too.
buff.ly
SHAC Article: 🚩 Westminster Council serves as a warning: failing local democracy & institutional defensiveness replace public accountability. 🚩🚩 The impact on tenants & residents is devastating. 🚩🚩🚩 It's a call to create our own power! #SHACNationalHousingUnion shaction.org/2026/06/20/w...
Social Housing Action CampaignWestminster’s Accountability Crisis: A Call to Action
By Boz For all the noise of national politics, Britain is missing the collapse of something more fundamental: the ability of ordinary people to hold local power to account. Westminster, of all plac…
shaction.org
SHAC Comment in the Press Pete Apps has been one of the most dedicated reporters on the scandal of the Grenfell fire which could have been prevented if authorities had listened to tenants and residents. peteapps.substack.com/p/has-social...
Has social housing changed since Grenfell?
Nine years ago, a different government promised reflection and transformative policies for social housing tenants. But did it come to anything?
peteapps.substack.com
SHAC in the News - The Guardian highlighs 20% of councils built no social housing in the last two years, and that if govt continues to deliver at a snail’s pace, none of us alive today will see the end of the housing emergency. SHAC's agitating for real change! theguardian.com/society/2026...
Social housing lists ‘would take 119 years to clear at current building rate’
Research shows generations of children in England will grow up homeless unless government addresses council housing debt, charity says
theguardian.com
SHAC Comment in the Press Thanks to Camden New Journal for covering the shocking cost of housing - something that seems to have become normalised in the majority of the press. We cannot & should not accept it (see P8 of e-edition). edition.pagesuite.com/html5/reader...
Camden New Journal
Camden New Journal - 04/06/2026
edition.pagesuite.com
A massive new national survey of 829 residents by SHAC reveals rampant service charge exploitation across the UK, just as Housing Minister Matthew Pennycook rejects calls to cap skyrocketing costs. #EndServiceChargeAbuse shaction.org/2026/05/27/m...
Social Housing Action CampaignMass Survey Exposes Rampant Service Charge Abuse as Housing Minister Rejects Caps
New data from SHAC’s comprehensive national survey of 829 residents has exposed an environment of widespread service charge abuse, directly challenging the government’s refusal to protect ten…
shaction.org
Our new Parliamentary Petition has launched. It calls for government to make it possible for tenants and leaseholders to pay disputed service charges to a court to decide who gets the money. Please sign and share, share, share! petition.parliament.uk/petitions/76...
Petition: Allow disputed landlord service charges be paid to courts for better justice
Make it possible for tenant/leaseholders to pay disputed service charges to a court. The funds will then only pass to landlords if they can prove the charge's legitimacy within a specified timeframe. ...
petition.parliament.uk
Disputed service charges shouldn’t be “pay first, argue later.” This is a fair and transparent proposal that residents and good landlords should both support. petition.parliament.uk/petitions/767125 #Housing #ServiceCharges #SocialHousing #BenJenkins @shacaction.bsky.social
Petition: Allow disputed landlord service charges be paid to courts for better justice
Make it possible for tenant/leaseholders to pay disputed service charges to a court. The funds will then only pass to landlords if they can prove the charge's legitimacy within a specified timeframe. ...
petition.parliament.uk
News from SHAC myemail.constantcontact.com/---News-and-... SHAC Article on social housing / National Housing Union updates / legal action and political lobbying to end service charge abuse / political lobbying on shared ownership / new works on the SHAC art space.
- News and Updates
Email from The Social Housing Action Campaign SHAC ~ Protest ~ Article ~ Research Dear - 9th May 2026 Updates In this issue SHAC Article: Social Housing in the UK: A Brutal War of Attrition A Na
myemail.constantcontact.com
SHAC Article: A Brutal War of Attrition shaction.org/2026/05/07/s... As Hassan says: "The accountability gap isn’t a malfunction. It’s a design feature." We're working towards a Housing Union by and for tenants and residents to rebalance landlord-tenant power. More at shaction.org/a-national-h...
Social Housing Action CampaignSocial Housing in the UK: A Brutal War of Attrition
By guest writer Hassan Elbiali Imagine your roof leaks. You report it. Nothing happens. You report it again. You get a reference number. Then another. You escalate to the formal complaints process.…
shaction.org
On Saturday, we marched with around 6,000 housing warriors on the National Housing Demonstration. We had a huge range of different groups, and it was a great privilege to meet so many other campaigners. Solidarity to all! shaction.org/national-hou...
National Housing Demonstration – April 2026
SHAC and more than 60 housing campaigns, trade unions, and other groups marched on the 18th April 2026 to demand genuinely affordable housing. With thanks to the Homes for All and Homes for Us coal…
shaction.org
SHAC Article - FirstPort & the £300,000 Black Hole FirstPort: living proof of hyper-exploitation of tenants & residents as govt willfully looks the other way. #EndServiceChargeAbuse shaction.org/2026/04/20/t...
Social Housing Action CampaignThe £300,000 Black Hole: FirstPort’s Mystery Heating Bills
What would you do if your management company suddenly demanded up to £2,000 for heating, but refused to show you how the bill was calculated? This is the reality facing around 300 households at Wes…
shaction.org
SHAC Research: It's The Great Housing Benefit Heist! Landlords ripping off the taxpayer by siphoning off Housing Benefits for service charges to cover ghost services at extortionate rates. shaction.org/2026/04/13/t... #EndServiceChargeAbuse
Social Housing Action CampaignThe Great Housing Benefit Heist
How Landlords are Siphoning Millions in Unearned Service Charges from the Welfare State A new investigation by SHAC reveals a systemic failure in the Housing Benefit system, allowing landlords to o…
shaction.org
£500,000 in service charges… with no invoices. In Podcast #68, I speak with Muna_Suz from @shacaction.bsky.social about #Peabody, service charge overcharging, and the legal tactics used to silence residents. This isn’t one case—it’s a pattern. www.youtube.com/watch?v=KO5r...
Housing Sector Podcast #68 - Missing Invoices, Legal Threats and the Housing Playbook
YouTube video by Housing Sector
youtube.com
SHAC Article: Missing Info and the Service Charge Maze -Service charges spiralled & an email built a residents’ assoc. shaction.org/2026/04/02/m... David has exceptional evidence of service charge abuse by Peabody but his experience is common. £500k of missing invoices. #EndServiceChargeAbuse
Social Housing Action CampaignMissing Information and the Service Charge Maze
Missing information and the service charge maze: how one email built a residents’ association By SHAC member David Woodrow Our residents’ association was born from an accident. In August 2024, our …
shaction.org
SHAC Meeting - Challenging Service Charges 6pm Today, 30th March Join us to discuss how we challenge and resist extortionate service charges. All welcome. Join at tinyurl.com/CSCSMeet
SHAC and Members in the News Our member Joseph got a service charge increase of 300%. His income didn't increase by 300%. His other household costs didn't either. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Leaseholders in Luton forced to pay for fire safety work
Joseph Brown says the charges for his flat will increase by about £1,500 a quarter from April.
bbc.co.uk
SHAC in the News. The increase in social landlord evictions increase is the inevitable outcome of government's housing policy (such as it is) which focusses on building new supply to the exclusion of almost anything else. insidehousing.co.uk/news/bailiff...
Bailiff evictions by social landlords rise 10% in a year, latest statistics show
The number of bailiff evictions by social housing landlords rose by 10% in England and Wales last year, according to the latest government statistics.
insidehousing.co.uk
Rachel is speaking out because she has evidence to show how revenge evictions by housing associations happen, step by step, and because many tenants do not survive the process long enough to document it. shaction.org/2026/03/04/o...
Facing Eviction: A Tenant's Battle Against Damp and Disrepair
Facing homelessness and health risks, one tenant exposes systemic failures in housing safety and tenant rights. Discover her urgent story.
shaction.org
In Episode 66 of the Housing Sector Podcast, Suz from @shacaction.bsky.social and I discuss service charges, housing benefit oversight, communication plans, and why many residents never make it to tribunal. youtu.be/xwkk64KfC5s #HousingSector #ServiceCharges #SocialHousing
Housing Sector Podcast #66 - Communication Plans, Service Charge Overcharging, and more
YouTube video by Housing Sector
youtu.be
Over 63% of concluded First-tier Property Tribunal cases on resulted in judges finding some level of overcharging — with charges reduced or removed, and in some cases services not delivered at all. @shacaction.bsky.social breaks down what that means for residents. www.youtube.com/shorts/iJcx8...
Housing Sector Short – 63% of Service Charge Cases Found Overcharging
YouTube video by Housing Sector
youtube.com
SHAC Article - London Rents A Blow to Key Workers - by Mary Pimm shaction.org/2026/02/15/l... "the failure to consult all interested parties [meant] the dominant voices were housing associations, councils and other providers" Why we're campaigning for change.
Social Housing Action CampaignLondon Rents A Blow to Key Workers
By Mary Pimm, SHAC member and Victoria Park Community Association Chair In November 2024, the Mayor of London initiated a consultation about devising a Key Worker Living Rent (KWLR) plan. It ended …
shaction.org
SHAC Research Finds Overcharging in More Than 63% of Tribunal Cases But government and landlords continue to deny that it is systematic! #EndServiceChargeAbuse shaction.org/2026/02/13/s...
Social Housing Action CampaignSHAC Research Finds Overcharging in More Than 63% of Tribunal Cases
New research carried out by SHAC shows that across all the cases of service charges challenged at the First Tier Property Tribunal (FTT), more than 63% of landlords were found to be overcharging fo…
shaction.org