You pay for it. You should have a say in how it's run.
We're neighbours who love living here and want to keep it that way. Right to Manage is simply the legal route that puts the people who pay for Embassy Gardens in charge of choosing and directing who looks after it. It does not mean residents managing the estate themselves. Nothing that makes this place special has to change, only who the people running it answer to.
Right to Manage is the right to choose your managing agent.
It does not mean residents running Embassy Gardens themselves. The professional managing agent, engineers, contractors and estate team carry on the day-to-day work exactly as they do now.
What changes is who that managing agent answers to. Under RTM the leaseholders choose the agent, agree the priorities and budgets, and can replace the agent if the service falls short. In short, we appoint and hold to account the people who run our buildings, instead of being managed by a company we did not choose and cannot change.
And one honest boundary, stated up front: an estimated 25–40%* of the service charge is your own building's costs, the part RTM brings under leaseholder control. The rest is estate-wide and shared, where organised RTM buildings gain a far stronger voice. More control, not full control, over Embassy Gardens. Exactly what RTM covers →
*Subject to expert advice and assessment.
Let's be honest about the money.
The combined estate service charge budget rose 67.5% between 2021 and 2026, around 11% a year compounded. Measured against what the estate actually cost in 2021, the rise is 75.9%. CPI over the same window was roughly 20%: charges have grown at three to four times inflation, however you cut it. And the FY2025 accounts came in roughly 16% over budget.
Part of that increase reflects real, external pressures any manager would face: inflation, energy, insurance, staffing and the cost of meeting building-safety obligations. Nobody should pretend otherwise, and we don't. But recent budget increases, and the timing of some financial explanations, have led many leaseholders to seek a more direct role in how their buildings are governed.
Because the structural problem is this: none of the more than 1,450 leaseholders paying those charges has a vote on how they are spent. That's the bit that doesn't sit right, and the bit RTM is designed to fix. See the figures in full →
The average conceals a sharp split: Phase 1's budget rose about 32% (5.7% a year); Phase 2's about 111% (16% a year), though part of that reflects developer support unwinding as the estate completes, not pure cost inflation, and sector-wide pressures on energy, insurance, staffing and building-safety compliance account for part of the rise too. Three caveats, stated plainly: 2026 is a budget, not an outturn, and recent budgets have been overshot; the figures exclude balancing charges, so cash actually demanded since 2023 runs higher; and the phase split is an apportionment of the development-wide 2026 budget. Source: EGRA analysis of published service charge budgets and accounts, 2021–2026. Figures last updated 18 July 2026.
None of this is about changing Embassy Gardens. It's about protecting it.
The gardens, the river walk, the pool above the rooftops, we're not trying to change any of it. We just want the neighbourhood we pay for to be run by people who answer to us.
Parliament wrote the answer in 2002.
Right to Manage was created for buildings exactly like ours, and improved in 2024: mixed-use buildings like ours now qualify, and the freeholder's routine legal costs are no longer recoverable from leaseholders. Thousands of UK buildings already run this way, including a ten-block, 1,100-flat estate one bridge along the river, confirmed as the country's largest RTM in 2025. See how it's worked for our neighbours →
Don't just take our word for it. The Leasehold Advisory Service (LEASE) is the government-funded, independent advice body for leaseholders, and its Right to Manage guides describe the same statutory process we set out here. Every RTM company's Articles of Association is publicly filed at Companies House, where anyone can inspect it.
So what is Right to Manage, really?
It's a legal right under the Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Act 2002, and it's more straightforward than it sounds.
It lets qualifying leaseholders take over responsibility for how their buildings are managed, without buying the freehold, and without having to prove the current landlord or agent has done anything wrong. It's no-fault by design: meet the criteria, and a tribunal must grant it.
In short, it changes who oversees the professional management of the estate. Nothing more, nothing less. No fault. No fight. Just our right.
To be clear, RTM does not:
- Change your lease
- Remove the freeholder
- Affect ownership of your apartment
- Get rid of professional management
- Alter your rights to use the facilities your lease grants you
- Transfer control of the shared estate facilities, the cinema, gyms and Sky Pool are expected to carry on being managed by BAML and recharged to the RTM company (the Settlers Court question, answered head-on)
What we'd actually get out of it.
Answerable to us
The people paying the service charges get to oversee the people spending them. The professionals stay; who they answer to is what changes.
Openness about money
Budgets, contracts, reserve funds and major works, itemised and shared with members, every year. No more guessing where it goes.
Better value
Every significant contract put out to fair, open competition. This isn't about cut-price management, it's about knowing every pound is well spent.
Protecting what we love
The Sky Pool, concierge, security and gardens, looked after and improved, never quietly traded away for a short-term saving.
What changes, and what doesn't.
Right to Manage isn't about self-managing the estate or removing anyone. It changes who the managing agent works for, and it opens the books.
Today
- The managing agent is appointed through the freeholder's structure
- Budgets are set for us, not with us
- Limited visibility of the accounts and invoices
- We don't see how contracts are awarded
- Hard to get a clear record when something is repaired
- The agent answers to the freeholder's structure
Under RTM
- Leaseholders choose the managing agent, and the current agent is welcome to bid too
- Budgets set with us, and scrutinised before the money is spent
- Full access to the accounts and invoices, every line, every bill
- Every significant contract tendered openly, on evidence
- A documented repair trail: what was reported, when, by whom, and at what cost
- The agent answers to us
What RTM does not change
The freehold stays with the freeholder. The developer keeps its own duties, including the original design and construction of the buildings, and any latent defects in systems such as heating and water. The shared-estate facilities, the Sky Pool, gyms and cinema, stay estate-managed and recharged. And your lease, ownership and mortgage are untouched. RTM changes the management of your building; it does not shift the freeholder's or developer's own responsibilities.
An estimated 25–40%* of the service charge is your own building's costs, the part RTM brings under your control. The rest is estate-wide and shared. Even there, RTM gives your building the standing right to see, question and challenge the accounts behind every charge.
*Subject to expert advice and assessment.
And there is real room to look harder: the service-charge accounts have never been independently audited, the accountants expressly give no opinion on them. Under RTM, residents could choose to change that.
Nothing changes on day one, except who management answers to.
Choosing RTM doesn't touch the things that matter most to you. The estate keeps running professionally, the morning after just like the morning before.
- Your lease
- Your ownership
- Your mortgage
- Your rights under your lease
- Professional estate management
- Existing amenities
- Concierge services
- Security arrangements
- Your ability to sell or let your apartment
This works for all of us.
If you live here, you want management that's responsive and on your side. If you invest here, you want costs controlled and value protected. A well-run neighbourhood delivers both, because those two things pull in exactly the same direction.
Neighbours with the right experience to do this properly.
The proposed leadership team brings together neighbours with careers in finance, procurement, law, engineering and property, providing strategic oversight while professional agents run the estate day to day. Every director will be introduced here, with their background and a plain declaration of interests, so you know exactly who's involved and why.
The journey from here.
- 1
Add your voice
Your support is recorded, and the updates begin.
- 2
Build the company
Membership grows; advisers appointed.
- 3
Consult
Budgets and proposals shared with you before any notices.
- 4
Claim
The statutory process under the 2002 Act.
- 5
Transition
Management transfers; professional agents stay on, now overseen by residents.
Still turning it over in your mind?
Every question we've been asked, costs, amenities, tribunals, timelines, answered openly and without spin in the FAQ centre.
Add your voice to the neighbourhood.
If you believe the people who pay for Embassy Gardens should have a real say in how it's run, come and join a growing group of neighbours from every building. It takes two minutes and commits you to nothing.
About two minutes. Free. Non-binding. Counts your flat towards your building's threshold.