Levelling Up Questions

I was deeply concerned to be contacted by a resident at Tyrrell Court in Wakefield who told me that their landlord, Wakefield District Housing (WDH), was introducing new communal electricity charges. This equates to an additional £125 per year on top of their rent increases.

These are costs that residents, some of whom have lived there for 20 years, have never been charged before. I think it’s wrong that WDH have chosen the height of a cost-of-living crisis to suddenly impose these extra costs on tenants. Many of the residents are elderly and on fixed incomes and so will struggle to find the money.

Following my Business Question on Thursday, I met with the residents at Tyrrell Court to hear more about their concerns since these charges were introduced. They are rightly frustrated at such a sudden increase.

On Monday I asked the Levelling Up Secretary whether there was anything his Department could do in response to this case. I was glad that he agreed to follow up with me on this issue.