Thank you for subscribing!

Leathbond has told tenants and leaseholders it will not begin repairs until they pay sharply increased service charges

Borehamwood High Street, dubbed "British Hollywood", has been plagued by 400ft-long scaffolding for more than a year.

The structural support erected by Leathbond, a property firm with net assets exceeding £1billion, has stood idle for 12 months just steps from the EastEnders set, with not a worker in sight.

It was put up to address loose cladding, yet neither residents nor business owners in the town received any advance warning before it engulfed their windows and shopfronts.

Despite no construction taking place, Hertfordshire County Council recently extended the scaffolding licence, while Hertsmere Council approved the works on June 26, 2026, with a condition requiring work to begin within three years.

Leathbond has told tenants and leaseholders it will not begin repairs until they pay sharply increased service charges, which have risen more than fourfold for some.

Komar Tourachi, 36, who took over the Nza Food Store just a month before the scaffolding appeared, has seen his quarterly service charge surge from £1,500 to £6,177 - while still paying £19,500 in rent and £2,900 in business rates every quarter, according to the Daily Mail.

Mr Tourachi estimated he loses between £2,000 and £3,000 weekly on produce spoiling in the sun, his £15,000 canopy rendered useless by the metal framework.

He said: "There's no one doing work on it. There's no one on the scaffolding. You never see it."

Further along the street, Ildiko Szocs-Dee, co-owner of the Crystal Salt Cave relaxation therapy business, saw her service charges quadruple from £600 to £2,400 this year.

Footfall had "drastically dropped," she said, with elderly customers deterred by expectations of construction noise.

She told the Daily Mail: "It is so upsetting for him. He gets embarrassed as it is always in front of people, especially by the bus stop."

Residents using mobility scooters and wheelchairs have reported similar difficulties.

Leaseholder Mark Edwards said the annual service charge on his two-bedroom flat had ballooned from roughly £500 to around £6,000, making a sale impossible.

The additional costs had "drained my savings," he said, adding that owners had "lost a lot of trust" with the firm.

Second-floor residents face further financial strain after their external staircase collapsed three years ago.

A temporary replacement remains in place, with extra monthly fees still being levied.

The scaffolding's uneven wooden blocks have also caused pedestrians to trip and fall.

Sarah Keys said her nine-year-old son Riley, who has cerebral palsy, had "tripped over the scaffolding so many times even though he's tried to navigate around it".

Councillor Dan Ozarow accused the borough's Labour-Liberal Democrat administration of having "rewarded this billion-pound company with three years to start the work".

He acknowledged nobody disputed the initial safety rationale but said the anger centred on 12 months of inaction.

He said: "They're not going to start the work until they've got all the money."

His campaign to have the structure taken down was dismissed as "fake" by Paul Richards, a Liberal Democrat member of Hertsmere Council's ruling coalition.

Hertfordshire County Council told the Daily Mail it extended the licence because cladding still posed a falling risk.

Hertsmere Council confirmed it had asked the Valuation Office Agency to reduce rateable values for affected businesses and said traders could apply for interim hardship relief.

GB News has reached out to Hertfordshire County Council for a further comment.