Just llike Council tax your leasehold chargers are arbitrary and usually unjustified. If you dont want to be smoked out of your own home with charges that do not fall in line with day to day reality then you need to ask more fundemental questions. Being docile is not the answer for anybody if you want fair treatment. The 500 hundred you pay seems outrageous in itself. If you break down your charges and multiply these amounts by the other tenanted flats you will find there can be no justification for these charges whatsoever. Lewisham Homes get fed rheotoric by the Council to which to feed you with. Speak to the other Leaseholders in your area. Use human contact and not the internet. Your situation is likened to a piece on a monopoly board. What amount you are charged the year next will depend on the dice. We are in a recession. Wages and jobs are being held back or reduced while Councils seem to invent new ways to create new poverty. Its really up to you.

Good luck