My student son and friends are renting a property from a private landlord on a council estate of over 100 properties. About a third of the properties have been bought in the past under the "right to buy" scheme so are now occupied by leaseholders or their private tenants (like my son). The other two thirds are occupied by council tenants.
The estate is part of a heat network. None of the properties have meters fitted, so individual usage is not measured. Council tenants and leaseholders pay the council for heating and hot water via a service charge, itemised on an annual bill that includes other services. My son's landlord is passing this heating charge through to his private tenants under the terms of their tenancy agreement. That is all fine, however ...
As there are no individual meters, the annual bill is the same for all leaseholders with properties of the same size, and is very high, approximately double what the (recent) EPC says a property of that size should cost. For the most part this is likely to be because the lack of meters means there is no incentive for occupants to turn their radiator thermostats down or off when they go out (there are no room thermostats). But we've also found out that council tenants are paying significantly less for their heating, so we're wondering if they are being subsidised by the leaseholders. Of course there may be a legitimate and legal reason their discount, such as certain benefits being applicable specifically to council tenants. But setting that aside, in principle would councils legally be allowed to charge their leaseholders more than their tenants for the same service just because they are leaseholders?