CORBYN`S FIRST SEVEN DAYS AND CAMERON ATTACKS HOUSING ASSOCIATIONS

`Jez We Can` and

    `Fed We Can`

Seven days of Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader and the Jez We Can chanting in his support becomes louder than ever, backing up  a stunning series of Corbyn rallies and speeches.

Three hundred miles away, another slogan is  catching on, a slogan that has echoes of Corbyn and his  challenging agenda. The slogan that these  supporters chant is Fed We Can.

The “Fed” in Fed We Can  stands for Federation, namely Carlisle Tenants and Residents` Federation, a long-established community group of activists  which for several years has been critical of the policies and  the work of the city`s biggest landlord - the Liverpool based Riverside Housing Association.

Riverside, now a giant property developer is today under greater attack from the Federation. And, together with other housing associations, Riverside is also under attack from other critics, notably the Prime Minister and the Chancellor of the Exchequer.

The Federation`s  present attack is centred on  Riverside`s Complaints Procedure, set up by that organisation some years ago to deal with  complaints from its 50,000 tenants and leaseholders.

It is a flawed procedure, says the Federation, flawed because there are   far more complaints about the way it works than there are about the   complaints it sets out to to deal with.

In the view of the Federation  the long-drawn- out Riverside procedure is   nothing more than a way of kicking tenants` complaints into the long grass of permanent delay. It does this by engineering un-necessary long delays into the complaints` process.

And as everyone knows, justice delayed is justice denied.

For many months there has been a steep build-up of complaints about the Riverside procedure, notably  complaints to Carlisle City Council. In response,Riverside told the council that things had changed. A brand new procedure had been instituted, Riverside  said.

But where is that new procedure, tenants and leaseholders wish to know.The Federation  asked for copies of it and found that  there had been no change at all.The new procedure was the old procedure.

And it is believed that the city council is also still hunting for the alleged new procedure.

Complaints to Riverside have always been dodgy.Tenant community groups which dealt with complaints were abolished when Riverside  took over the city` s council houses 13 years ago.

At the same time, Riverside tried to abolish the Federation. But in the place oi these groups it has never established a democratic body  to put forward tenants` complaints.

Of course, there have been  years of promises of better things to come- 13 years of these promises.There was a promise of a tenant forum and the  promise of a leaseholder forum. Where are they?

This week there was news of  even more better things  to come.

Riverside issued a grandly named document, its Resident Involvement and Empowerment Strategy.

The document has several thousand words and fills 10 pages of A4 paper. Far far too much for the average tenant to cope with. In the opinion of the Federation,----- it will take a skilled lawyer to  fully untangle it.

Words, words, words. Promises, promises, promises,

It is the sort of Alice in Wonderland situation that George Osborne, the Chancellor and David Cameron must have had in mind this week when they both attacked all the 1,500 housing associations.

They are inefficient and their performance is not particularly impressive, the Chancellor told a House of Lords Committee.

A similar attack was made by David Cameron. It`s about time  housing associations improved their performance, he told the House of Commons.

Both attacks hinted that  government pressure to make housing associations more  efficient is on its way.

The pressure is long overdue.

It cannot come soon enough.

CarlisleTenants` and Residents` Federation publishes this blog. Information about the Federation is available on 01228 522277 or 01228 532803.