Water Rates

Several residents, particularly Terry and Dennis, have been campaigning for a  refund to tenants of part of the water rates paid before 2016. Our landlords have agreed to this refund in March 2022


Before 2016  housing associations and local authorities got a special rate from Thames Water for their tenants. In 2016 the court held that the saving should be passed onto the tenants. This case only applied to Southwark, and since then the residents association has been campaigning for the saving to be passed onto St Martins tenants. There have been other cases in different parts of London, and Lambeth Council has now agreed to pass on the savings to their tenants.

If you were a tenant on the estate between 2004 and 2016 and have now moved you are still entitled to a refund. And if you were a housing association tenant before you moved to St Martins you are entitled to a refund for the whole period. But this won’t be processed automatically. To get a refund:

  • If your last landlord was MTVH contact tim.millns@mtvh.co.uk
  • If your last landlord was NHG contact emily.thompson@nhg.org.uk
  • If your last landlord was Optivo contact waterrates@optivo.org.uk

History

The South London Press reported on this story in June 2021. And Inside Housing reported it in April 2022

We have correspondence from MTVH confirming in July 2021 the refund will be paid.

We have correspondence from MTVH in October 2021 confirming the refund will be paid to their tenants in January

We have correspondence from Optivo and NHG in December 2021 confirming the refund will be paid. The letters confirming this will go out by early March 2022

By March 2022 we believe all the refunds have been paid