The Aster Group is a housing association which provides affordable homes to many residents in my constituency and across the south of England and London. Recently, some of my constituents came to me about the rising cost of maintaining and replacing sewage treatment plants ((STPs) and the extortionate cost of cleaning the tanks. The residents mainly affected live in the more exposed rural parts of the constituency and hence off the mains. When I first heard about this issue, I learnt that Caroline Nokes, the MP for Romsey & Southampton, had a similar issue, so I contacted her. I decided to email all the Seats that Aster operated in to find out how widespread this issue was. My first move was to hold a virtual meeting with Aster on 13 October to get their side of the story. The meeting was inconclusive, although the huge amounts of money being demanded by Aster shocked me. On that basis, I agreed with Caroline to hold a joint meeting with Aster to take our constituents' cases further. Regrettably, I could not attend on the date agreed, 18 January, due to another constituency engagement, so my very able assistant, Harriet, attended on my behalf. Also present were Baroness Scott, the minister for social housing, Caroline Nokes, Cllr Nick Adams, Hampshire County Council, Cllr Laura Beddow, Bjorn Howard, CEO of Aster Housing, Emma O'Shea, Aster Housing, and Gary Bellenger, property investment director, Aster Housing. Caroline began the meeting by explaining how the cost of these STPs had risen dramatically. Bills in Dorset only started rising from £30/month to £78/month last year. In August 2023, residents began getting demands of up to £400/month. One home owner in Dorset had to pay a one-off cost of £3,474.96 for emptying a tank. Aster said they were looking into what maintenance had taken place across all STPs. So far as the outcome is concerned, Baroness Scott asked Aster to consider going back to 2021 charges prior to their increase to see if a different 'plan' could be drawn up. In one resident's case, they would look at the deeds to see if the homeowner was not responsible for STPs. Emma O'Shea agreed to discuss with MPs and residents the newly announced hardship fund. Aster also agreed to look again at local contractors in regard to emptying tanks as they admitted their costs are too high. They also agreed to stop chasing residents for unpaid bills until they come back with a 'plan'. They would also consider setting up a sinking fund. I was told that the Baroness certainly held Aster to account and we await to hear more from them.