PRIVATE homeowners from Chepstow to Caldicot face being billed by the county's largest housing association for one-off improvements to communal estates, footpaths, car parking, street lights, play areas and landscaping.

The case which has echoes of Two Rivers Housing's bid to charge homeowners for grass cutting, which ended in humiliating court defeat, arises from a letter from Monmouthshire Housing Association.

In his letter to town and community council across the county, MHA neighbourhood services manager Andrew Nash says: "Please note this work is to serve Monmouthshire Housing Association tenants. Any owner-occupiers may be requested to cover the cost of any improvements on a pro-rata basis."

Town councillors from Caldicot are now asking Monnmouthshire County Council – which transferred all its housing stock to MHA in 2008 – for their views.

Cllr Dave Ashwin said: "This seems to discriminate against owner-occupiers. If the council agrees to this, it is an open cheque book from owner-occupiers."

Cllr Wyndham Conniff said they were right to be concerned but there was little that could be done without changes to the way in which housing associations operate.

"There have been lots of issues about the responsibilities of housing associations since the right-to-buy (council houses by tenants) was introduced. It needs change to the way housing associations do business."

Councillors were also concerned there could be parallels with the situation in the Forest of Dean where owner-occupiers went to court to fight service charges imposed by the Two Rivers housing association.

Andrew Nash told the Review that MHA would not go ahead with any scheme unless the majority of residents were in favour.

He said: "We always consult with local people and we would not go ahead with a scheme unless and until the majority of them were in favour. This is not an service charge, it would be a one-off contribution for improvements that everyone would benefit from."

Monmouthshire Housing is responsible for about 7,000 of the 39,000 homes in the county.