COMING TOGETHER IN ENGLAND TOO!

JOINT FIGHT

AGAINST

ASSET STRIPPERS

AND BLOATED PROFITS

  

The Scots are now coming together a few days after the 

referendum upheavals... and another coming together is 

also underway, a few miles away on the English side of 

the border.

Here, an upheaval also sparked the coming together This upheaval  was caused by the privatisation of Carlisle council houses.  The  coming together is a way of joining  the efforts of those householders fighting to get justice  from what followed that privatisation.

Venue of  meeting seeking help... Carlisle Cathedral.

What followed  was excessive profit making and asset stripping by the privatisers, Riverside Housing Association, a huge Liverpool based organisation owning more than 50,000 homes.

An estimated three hundred Riverside householders (in three categories) are seeking justice.

Riverside tenants seek justice, its leaseholders seek justice and so do those householders in shared home ownership schemes with  the organisation.

Up to now, each of the three have battled unsuccessfully alone, seeking help from councillors, M.P.s and law centres.

Now the three have come together seeking help from another body, the Church of England.

It was at a meeting with the Church in Carlisle Cathedral Close that the  coming together started. Tenants and leaseholders gave detailed criticism, item by item, of Riverside`s shocking methods, work and operations.

Tenants cannot heat their homes because of botched heating installations, the number of heating breakdowns is soaring and serious criminal problems are being caused by Riverside letting properties to an excessive number released from jail.

Leaseholders` flats are now un-saleable having lost fifty per cent of their value. And Riverside workmanship on the flats is poor and incompetently carried out. Annual service and other charges have rocketed, in one case from £1,250 to £6,000 making leaseholders unable to save for a deposit for a move to a freehold property.

The coming together continues this week with a second meeting of  representatives of the three, called by Carlisle Tenants` and Residents` Federation which is leading the fight.

What about Riverside...any coming together there?

Carol Mathews...salary £182,47... £40.000 better than David Cameron 

New figures show that last year  the organisation had a cash turnover of £293 million and a profit (operating surplus) of £68 million, or 22.5 per cent of  turnover, up from 20.1 per cent the previous year.

Carol Mathews, Riverside`s Chief Executive had a salary of £182, 474, which is £40, 000 more than David Cameron.

And for the freezing tenants  who cannot afford to heat their homes, there is to be an Affordable Warmth Officer with a salary of £23,500 “to offer help to those requiring advice around fuel poverty and energy.” according to  the job description.

But no news at all on how the botched boiler systems are to be repaired, how  the excessive service charges are to be stopped from going through the roof, or how Riverside plans to improve its dodgy repair systems.


Community Voice Carlisle is the blog of Carlisle Tenants` and Residents` Federation.Information about the Federation is available on the first post of this blog, dated March 25 2012