Due to ongoing financial challenges, the council must prioritise spending on essential services. As a social housing landlord, we are considering changes to the service charges paid by tenants.
This consultation seeks your views on the proposed introduction of a service charge for communal grounds maintenance services.
What Communal Grounds Maintenance covers
We provide a range of services to over 21,000 tenants and leaseholders, including:
- Grass cutting: Your grass will be cut every 2-3 weeks during the growing season, up to 12 times a year.
- Shrubs: Shrubs will get a trim once a year, usually during the winter months. We’ll do a more thorough cutback every three years to keep them healthy.
- Hedge maintenance: Hedges will be cut once a year. As per legal guidelines, we’ll do this between October and February to protect nesting birds.
- Weed control: We’ll treat weeds around grass edges and along walls and fences once a year, usually at the start of the growing season.
- Herbaceous (non-woody plants that die down to the root each year) beds: These will get a yearly tidy-up, including weed removal and trimming back of plants.
- Trees and woodlands: We’ll take care of trees according to national standards and our policies.
Service charge proposals
These services cost over £1,700,000 each year. To sustain these services, we propose introducing a service charge for the year April 2025 to March 2026.
The charges are as follows:
- Almost 1,500 tenants and leaseholders will pay no service charge.
- Almost 8,700 tenants and leaseholders will pay between £0.10 to £0.99 a week.
- Just over 6,500 tenants and leaseholders will pay between £1.01 to £1.99 a week.
- The remaining 4,700 tenants and leaseholders will pay a maximum of £2.00 per week.
Charges will vary. However, the council is not proposing to charge any tenant or leaseholder more than £2 per week for the year April 2025 to March 2026.
Financial support
If you currently receive Housing Benefit or Universal Credit, the proposed additional service charges can be included in your rent for benefit purposes.
Have your say
We want tenants and leaseholders to get involved in our plans.
Please take a few minutes to share your thoughts on the proposed service charges by completing our Communal Grounds Maintenance service charge consultation survey.
Deadline: This consultation will close midnight on Tuesday 10 September.
Councillor Crook, Cabinet member for transport and housing at Kirklees Council said:
‘’It’s important that all of our tenants, impacted by the changes proposed in this consultation, can share their feelings on the proposals for communal ground maintenance charges and have their say. I would encourage tenants to take part in this consultation so we can listen to their feedback and make sure we’re shaping services in a way that is affordable and that still meet their needs.”