This month, City West Housing wrote to tenants at Cremer House in Eccles stating that, "following feedback from high rise customers regarding the cleanliness of external windows" the company will be introducing a window cleaning service on "a twice yearly basis"...
The fee for the cleaning is in addition to service charges and is £1.30 per week, plus a 20p per week "management fee". For tenants this works out at around £6 per month, or £72 per year, for two cleans; one in spring and one in the autumn. Or £36 per clean.
"My flat is one-bedroom so I only have three windows in it, which means that City West is charging me £12 per window per clean" fumes Cremer House tenant, Ali Cassim "How on earth have they reached a figure like that?
"I have friends on the ground and first floors who clean their own windows; are they still going to have to pay £1.30 plus the 20p 'management cost', whatever that is, per week?" he asks "I find it absolutely scandalous that they think they can rip us off in this way."
Other City West tenants have also got in touch about the new service, pointing out that the company once boasted that the windows in the high rise block were 'self cleaning'...
The Salford Star has asked City West parent company ForViva for a comment but as yet no response has been received.