To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what the evidential basis is for her statement that capping leaseholder service charges for ex-council flats would cost £40 million; what timescale that cost was estimated to arise over; and whether there is a distinction between the costs of (a) resident and (b) buy-to-rent leaseholders in the estimates made. (134207)

The statement is based on the results of a survey conducted in March 2007 on behalf of the Department for Communities and Local Government by London Councils, the representative body of the London boroughs. No distinction was made between resident and buy-to-rent leaseholders.