b"Not very many people staircase partially. Almost all the staircasing is in lump sums to 100%. (Interviewee 2)People participating in shared ownership either aggressively staircase in order to fully own or dont staircase at all. Theres not much in between, and it is dependent on the financial situation of tenants. (Interviewee 5)They felt that shared owners would prioritise other types of spending if they had spare cash: My argument here has always been one of choice i.e. do you buy an extra 1% or that new dining table or holiday. (Interviewee 12)3.3.3 Repairs and maintenance Most providers were quite concerned about the announcement that providers will be expected to cover all costs of any repairs and maintenance for 10 years. There were mixed views on the general principle of sharing the costs of any repairs and maintenance. Some felt that it was only fair that the burden of repairs and maintenance costs did not fall solely on shared owners:I think announcement of repair responsibility is good. One of the common complaints of shared ownership is that youre paying 90% rent and not seeing any benefit from it. (Interviewee 9)It was noted that dissatisfaction amongst long term shared owners was caused in part by having sole responsibility for repairs and maintenance:I do think that some maintenance responsibility does need to be shared to make it work going forward.when you compare it to other things, it's hard to say that rent is significantly discounted. Lots of people say shared ownership is a great product, but people become increasingly dissatisfied with it over time. (Interviewee 2)However, views on this were mixed and others felt that responsibility for repairs and maintenance was a key part of home ownership, that shared owners received a subsidised rent already, and so it was inequitable to offer further subsidy in the form of providers taking the cost burden of any repairs and maintenance, particularly in areas where shared owners had high household incomes:10"