Lendlease Europe responds: Service charges for L&Q residents at Elephant Park

Lendlease has been working in partnership with Southwark Council at Elephant Park for over a decade on a major regeneration that will include 2,698 homes once complete. Articles published on 31 March in the Observer and Guardian online did not accurately reflect the way service charges are managed for residents who live in shared ownership homes on the development. 

Every residential leaseholder at Elephant Park contributes to two separate charges for services. The first is a charge for building services, which typically includes utilities, insurance, security, cleaning and maintenance.  The second is a charge for estate services, which includes landscaping and maintenance of public spaces.

L&Q is the landlord of the affordable homes at Elephant Park. The latest set of building and estate costs issued to L&Q were for the period running from July 2023 to June 2024. These were provided to them at the beginning of September last year alongside a full breakdown of those costs and overview of any changes. For residents living in buildings at Elephant Park that featured in the media coverage, a rise of around 18 per cent was indicated. 

As landlord, L&Q issue the service charge budget to their residents. L&Q’s annual budget timeframe is different to ours and runs from April to March. It means they’ve provided residents with a forecasted estimate of costs which has been referred to in the media as representing an increase of approximately 40 per cent. L&Q would need to explain how their charges have been calculated as we don’t have sight of this detail.

We’ve met with L&Q and reshared all of the information detailed above. We’ll continue to support them in responding to resident enquiries and assist them in improving the way service charge requirements are communicated to their residents.