Tuesday 12 March 2024

`PROPERTIES NOT BEING MAINTAINED THE WAY THEY SHOULD`

 

 

 Gove: Why I named and shamed housing associations

 Michael Gove the Housing Secretary spoke of his naming and shaming of  housing associations for their failures to fix some of the resulting problems for tenants in an interview this week.

He said: “I don’t relish writing letters because it’s an acknowledgement that people have been let down,” 

James Riding’s Profile | Inside Housing Journalist | Muck Rack 

 He regularly hears from constituents whose housing providers are not maintaining properties the way they should: “Even [for] issues like basic repairs, it’s a trial to get the housing association to respond.”

The overwhelming majority of people who work in housing are “highly professional” and most housing associations “do a good job”, he said  during the interview  with Inside Housing`s James Riding, pictured.

. “But we’ve got to focus on failure in order to drive it down and to help tenants.” . But what if it is not enough to push landlords to address their issues? “We’ll listen to what tenants are saying. And if there is cause for concern, and the need to do more, then we’ll do more.”

Carlisle Tenants` and Residents` Federation whch publishes this blog has campaigned for many years against similar failures to those mentioned by Mr Gove  by Riverside Housing Association, the giant Merseyside organisation.

Mr Gove said he took  inspiration on housing from past politicians such as fMichael Heseltine, Nye Bevan and Harold Macmillan:

Lord Heseltine (Margaret Thatcher’s environment secretary) for his “focus on urban regeneration, what we now call levelling up”,

Mr Macmillan, who under Sir Winston Churchill galvanised the private and public sectors to build 300,000 homes in a year, a feat unsurpassed by the current government – even if some of those homes were “not of sufficient quality”,

And Mr Bevan, a Labour Party titan under Clement Attlee, because in his time, housing was part of health and “the links between poor-quality housing and poor health have become more apparent and quite rightly risen up the political agenda”.

Mr Bevan also recognised “the aesthetic quality of homes” and believed it was “the right of working people to live in and to be surrounded by beauty”, he added.

Community Voice Carlisle is the blog of Carlisle Tenants` and Residents`Federation. Information about the Federation is available on 01228 52

Thursday 22 February 2024

KEEPING HOUSE SUPPLY BELOW DEMAND

 

Vested interests add to housing crisis

 Just how much is the building industry responsible for the present housing crisis?  Quite a lot, says housing expert Andrew Gilg. The industry has a vested interest in keeping supply below demand he says in a latter to The Times newspaper.

He adds:"Another factor is  inheritance  which allows those fortunate enough to have property owning parents to afford today`s high prices”.

Mr Gilg is the author  of Land Use Planning in Britain. He  says  in  his letter that local government should buy up development land and build all the houses as happened  after the war making it possible for 300,000 houses a year to be built by  the Macmillan government.

Thatcher 'lectured by Macmillan' over economic policies - BBC News
Key in Britain`s housing story...prime ministers Margaret Thatcher and Harold  Macmillan

But  this policy was watered down in the 1960`s  and private housing overtook council housing. That policy was reversed by the 1975 Community Land Act and a new policy  started to work until it was repealed by Margaret Thatcher

She, as we know. introduced the council house right to buy policy and severely reduced council housing.

Mr Gilg suggests that the present crisis could be eliminated by an incoming Labour government  resurrecting the 1975 act and lowering the inheritance tax threshold.

 Community Voice Carlisle is the blog of Carlisle Tenants` and Residents`Federation. Information about the Federation is available on 01228 52

Wednesday 31 January 2024

THE INSIDE FROM THE OUTSIDER

 

 

 

 Rory MP and the faulty

Riverside boilers

Man of many parts Rory Stewart is the author of a  much- acclaimed new book  which he  describes  as a  “memoir from within”.

 “Politics On the Edge” tells the story of Mr Stewart`s  rise from being a political outsider to standing for prime minister and then being sacked by the Conservative Party.

Politics On the Edge “Politics On the Edge”has become particularly popular in Mr Stewart`s former constituency, Penrith and the Border. The book`s cover tells us that he retains”a profound affection” for the constituency..

That affection was  built up in the  ten years he was M.P and much of  his constituency work  is described in the book…part of his memoir from within.

Mr Stewart,  spent a lot of time helping  about 80 constituents in Longtown who had serious problems with their landlord, Riverside Housing Association of Liverpool and the boilers fitted to their homes.The boiler issue caused a great deal of suffering.

Concerns were also raised at that time about the governance of Riverside. These concerns were, and continue to be, the principal campaigning issue of Carlisle Tenants` and Residents` Federation  which publishes this blog and lobbied Mr Stewart on the issue.

 The Federation claimed then and have consistently claimed that Riverside is a bossy, undemocratic, and inefficient organisation which is accountable to no-one but itself.

For those reasons, the Longtown boiler issue has not been solved and the faulty boilers are still in place.

Mr Stewart, an academic ,former soldier and former politician  is now president of the non-profit organisation GiveDirectly. He is also a visiting fellow at Yale University`s Jackson School and the co-host with Alastair Campbell` of the U.K`s leading podcast The Rest is Politics.

  Community Voice Carlisle is the blog of Carlisle Tenants` and Residents`Federation. Information about the Federation is available on 01228 52

 

 

Thursday 18 January 2024

LITTLE PEOPLE WERE DESPISED

 

Accounting fails

the Post Office

Surprise surprise!… today there is a report of a second  flawed IT system used by the Post Office which  also led to wrongful convictions. The report is in the i newspaper. A second flawed system is something you might expect after the ITV drama, Mr Bates versus the Post Office!

Carlisle Tenants` and Residents` Federation which publishes this blog   sees similarities between the issues  highlighted in the two Post Office scandals, now top of the nation`s agenda and the issues that have concerned  the Federation for many years. These issues are about accountability.

The Financial Times sums up the accountability issue in its headline over an article on the first scandal by Camilla Cavendish.”The UK has an  accountablity problem- just look at the Post Office” says the headline.

Carlisle Tenants` and Residents` Federation could  write a similar headline over the  story of its long fight against housing associations, particularly the Liverpool based Riverside Housing Associaiton.   Riverside, the Federation has said a thousand times over the years  is accountable to no one but itself.

The extent of the first scandal, so vividly screened  increases by the day,The extent of the newly-exposed  second scandal has yet to be fully revealed by the newspaper.

What does the i newspaper report today?

It says that former sub postmaster Steve Marston,67,was convicted of fraud and false accounting in 1998 after adopting the Capture IT system and suffering a £64,000 shortfall at his Post Office in Greater Manchester.

Labour MP Kevan Jones says he is in touch with about five or six potential victims of Capture and thinks there is likely to be many more.

Camilla Cavendish writes:”The Post Office victims were up against a self-serving apparatchik class which despises little people, is adept at covering its tracks and is a an increasing feature of modern Britain.

“We have the same pattern in other trajedies where public or quasi public bodies either fail to  join the dots or actively conspire in cover ups.”

 She cites these examples:the deaths of babies at a Morecambe Bay hospital: the sexual abuse of girls at Rotherham: and failings in the death of baby Peter Connelly.

She concludes that there are very few stories of ordinary people taking on large organisations and winning .” But there will be  even fewer wins in future if this issue is not fixed straight away.”

  Community Voice Carlisle is the blog of Carlisle Tenants` and Residents`Federation. Information about the Federation is available on 01228 522

Friday 22 December 2023

THREE YEAR OLD HOSPITALISED 7 TIMES

 

Riverside failures  lead to prolonged

illness

 The giant Riverside Housing Association has come in for criticism after a three-year-old child living in damp and mould in one of its homes was hospitalised for the seventh  time.

Ian Gregg, executive director of asset services at Riverside, said they initially believed previous work done on the child’s home in Middleton, Greater Manchester, had addressed concerns, but a further inspection following the child’s ill health found that this was not the case. 

Image result for housing affected by damp and mould picture
Damp and mould....effects are very visible

  He said: “Unfortunately this inspection has highlighted the need for further action to tackle damp and ventilation problems within the property, and we are in the process of preparing a schedule of works.”

Riverside had previously moved the family into a hotel to carry out repair work on the home.

Liverpool-based Riverside  is coming  increasing the focus for critics. These include Carlisle Tenants` and Residents` Federation, which publishes this blog.  For twenty years the federation has attacked  the association saying it is  bossy, inefficient and undemocratic.

  Community Voice Carlisle is the blog of Carlisle Tenants` and Residents`Federation. Information about the Federation is available on 01228 522

Thursday 30 November 2023

NO TALK OF SEX, WE `RE TAKING PICTURES

 

David has a beast of a problem

The  large pictures each week on the second section of the newspaper The Herald, Penrith (Cumbria)   are quite outstanding says a correspondent, with  their lovely shots taken by readers of the Lake District`s mountains, villages and  gardens

Older readers  will  see these classic pictures  as  being in the same tradition as that of many years` ago when the front page  of the Herald always had an attractive black and white  picture of one of the lakes, mostly in the same position on the page, and mostly  taken by the noted  Kendal photographer, James Hardman.

Everyone  is more sophisticated these days and everyone  now has a smartphone is a photographer.The Herald has also moved on,  with colour pictures replacing black and white and a much greater number of subjects than ever before, chosen by the enterprising Herald reader cameramen.

Having said all that, perhaps I can comment on the  very appealing  Highland cattle picture that appeared in the paper`s issue of November18 and say that to me, the picture was somehow incomplete. 

The photographer, David Satterthwaite of Tebay chose a magnificent subject but failed to say   whether the animal was male or female

Perhaps David doesn`t  know. The the tell-tale sexual “bits” are certainly hidden  by strands of the animal`s thick floppy red  coat. A  flick of the hand would move those strands.

Perhaps David, though possibly very brave was not brave enough to go and confront  the animal – it looks very much like a bull - and find out its sex for himself.

So, David, congratulations on your picture. But as I have said,  the picture to me is incomplete without  the animal`s sexual  identification. Is it a bull or is it a cow?

Your effort to get round the problem by calling the animal “a beast” is, frankly, a copout. Be brave David,go and find out and let us know one way or another.

Community Voice Carlisle is the blog of Carlisle Tenants` and Residents`Federation. Information about the Federation is available on 01228 522