letters
Highly charged
I am writing to you on behalf of the residents of Clarion shared ownership, The Courtyard, Circus Street, Brighton in response to your article [on bigissue. com]. We live in a newly built apartment block in Brighton. The block consists of a mixture of flats that are privately owned, privately rented and shared ownership. Many of us who live here bought property through ‘affordable housing’ schemes that should have in theory enabled us to get on the housing ladder.
I am a teacher and a single parent. Living in Brighton is increasingly hard, even on a relatively good wage. Purchasing my property through a shared ownership scheme enabled me to be able to afford a home for myself and my son that I probably would have not been able to afford in other circumstances.
However, in the short space of time that I have lived here both myself and my fellow residents have been shocked to discover that Clarion PLC (our landlord and the leaseholder) and Savills management have levied increases to our service charge that range from between 140% to 170%. For some this meant our service charge has increased from £124 to £416 per month.
For many of us, this is simply unaffordable. In addition, in the past month we have received notice that they require us to pay an additional backdated fee of £2,221 for the year 2022 to 2023, having ‘undercharged’ us.
Like my neighbours, I cannot afford these increases. What was meant to have been a lifesaver for me as a single parent to get on the housing ladder and build an investment for the future, is turning into a nightmare. We are trapped. Some neighbours have investigated putting their flats up for sale, but found that no provider would offer a mortgage to new owners because the service charge is so high.
We have had meetings with executives from Clarion and Savills to ask for an explanation and justification of these huge charges. We have yet to receive clarity about the increases.
So we are at our wits end. It seems so unjust that giant corporations like Clarion and Savills can unilaterally, during a cost of living crisis, supercharge an increase to these unaffordable levels.
Michelle Furber
Colonial crimes
Warwick Thornton is quite right. The origin of the ways Indigenous children were treated in Canada and Australia can be found in the 1836 Parliamentary Select Committee on Aboriginal Tribes set up for the following:
To consider what measures ought to be adopted with regard t
