MILIBAND SHOULD NOW TACKLE HOUSING ASSOCIATIONS

Ed Miliband....housing associations next?

BLOATED `PROFITS` AT
EXPENSE OF THE POOREST IN SOCIETY 

Ed Miliband should now take a look at the latest bloated figures for housing associations following his latest attack on the energy companies...“exorbitant  prices for exorbitant profits”, was his description  at yesterday`s Commons Question Time.

Profits of the Big Six  energy companies have  leapt more than sixfold a household to £53 a household from £8 a household  four years ago. The average household bill rose  £168 last year with £23 of  that rise going to greater profits, according to the regulator Ofgem

The story is much the same in the housing association sector where last year  there were soaring surpluses (profits) for Britain`s biggest  associations.

 Surpluses at the 30  biggest associations  soared to almost £1 billion according to research by the influential housing industry publication, Inside Housing.

The total surpluses for the 30 biggest in the last financial year stood at £947.1 million, a 60 per cent increase  on the previous year`s total of £592. 5 million.

An association   with one of the biggest increases- fifty percent- is the Liverpool based Riverside which owns all of Carlisle`s 6,500 former council houses. Its surplus now stands at £32.8 million.

The surplus comes as no surprise to Carlisle Tenants` and Residents` Federation which has long argued that Riverside is generating profits (not surpluses)-saving money for itself to sustain its business at the expense  of some of the poorest people.

Mr Miliband`s description of energy companies`” exorbitant prices for exorbitant profits”  can equally be applied to housing associations.

Now Mr Miliband should be asking why these associations, claiming to be  not-for-profit organisations, should be creating these excessive surpluses.

Why are rents increasing-including those in Carlisle- above the rate of inflation when there is so much profit?

 And why should these associations expect government subsidies when internal  reserves are so high?

A Federation spokesman said:”These profits are disgraceful. If these housing associations were spending money on new social housing there would be no surpluses.

”Alternatively, give tenants a rebate to help with soaring energy bills and living costs.”

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 2013.

HOUSING ASSOCIATIONS..."THEIR ROLE CAN BE POSITIVELY HARMFUL"

HUGE POWERS

WITH NO

ACCOUNTABILITY

A lot of criticism has been levelled at housing associations and the way they do things... secrecy and lack of accountability, particularly.

Now, housing associations are accused of being positively harmful.

Jon Zigmond

Mr.Jon Zigmond,  a partner for many years in one of the top international firms of auditors makes this accusation in a letter to the Financial Times.

Mr Zigmond,  now retired, says that housing associations should not  now have any greater role than others in the push for more housing. They  already benefit from cheap money, he says. He goes on:

“Housing associations exhibit mixed behaviour. Unlike elected local councils which know their decisions will be considered by voters at regular intervals, the boards of housing associations have no accountability.

”They face no competition and have huge powers to decide who should  and who should not have the very selective benefit of cheaper rents.

“With a limited supply of houses it is important that what is built is what is needed. The housing market provides that. A decision by an unelected body does not.

“ And with a limited supply of housing, designating some housing as social simply increases the cost of free market housing. So the chosen few receive a very valuable benefit to the detriment of others, not chosen but who are otherwise in almost the same position.”

This sort of thing has been said for years by the community group, Carlisle Tenants` and Residents Federation. Admittedly,  the Federation never put the case in such a scholarly fashion as Mr Zigmond.

But what he has to say  in the broad field of national housing is equally true on the housing estates of Carlisle where the unfair policies of  the giant Riverside Housing Association are well entrenched.

No competition, huge powers and  no accountability are  the main features of those policies. As  for the chosen few referred to by Mr. Zigmond, the Federation has fought for years  against another chosen few,  those who benefit from Riverside`s grossly unfair policy of help for some community groups and no help for others.

This fight will continue until Riverside respects all communities-not just the favourites- and starts to fall in line with the present government`s localism legislation

Mr Zigmond`s home is in the village of Rosedale Abbey, North Yorkshire. He was 34 years with PricewaterhouseCoopers, one of the world`s Big Four auditors.

Community Voice Carlisle is the blog of Carlisle Tenants` and Residents` Federation. Information about the Federation is contained in the first post of the blog, dated March 25 2013.

SOCIAL HOUSING SHOULD RETURN TO CIVIC OWNERSHIP

Press statement

JUMPS IN RIVERSIDE

BILLS ECHO  ENERGY

RIP-OFFS,

SAY TENANTS

There are echoes  of the continuing row over rocketing energy bills and the excessive pay awards for bosses in the charges to tenants of Riverside Housing Association, it is claimed today.

The community group, Carlisle Tenants` and Residents`Federation says that Riverside bills in Carlisle this year have increased thirty per cent more than increases in similar houses which remain in council ownership.

.

The Federation also draws attention to the Riverside annual accounts which reveal that David Jepson,  Riverside`s deputy chief  executive, had a total income last year of £393,000 which is 120 per cent more than the Riverside chief executive, Carol Matthews.

The total income of Ms Matthews is  several thousand pounds more than the Prime Minister.

Mr Jepson`s last year`s income is part of a redundancy package which included a payment in lieu of  notice " for business reasons", according to the accounts.

The influential housing magazine, Inside Housing, commenting on the accounts, says that only a month after Mr Jepson`s redundancy payment, he became interim chief executive at another big housing association, the 13,000 home Regenda Group. The salary was not disclosed.

A Federation spokesman said:”Such massive pay offs are not new to Riverside. Nor are massive jumps in the rents of Riverside tenants. In Cumbria this year, Riverside bills for rents  rose 30 per cent more over twelve months than rents in similar  social houses which remain in council ownership  in  Barrow, a town similar to Carlisle.”

The 30 per cent difference was revealed following an investigation by the Federation.

Fairer bills for  all householders is what the critics  now demand from the big six energy companies, together with an end to fat cat pay-offs for the bosses, better competition between companies and better regulation by the Government.

The Federation spokesman added: “The critics of Riverside and other housing associations make exactly the same demands and see a return to civic ownership of  all social housing as the only solution.”

Liverpool-based Riverside owns 55,000 houses nationwide. In Carlisle, it owns 6,000.

Issued by Carlisle Tenants` and Residents` Federation.

November 14 2013

BERLIN HAS THE ANSWER TO ENERGY PRICE RIP-OFFS

BRING BACK 
CIVIC
OWNERSHIP 
IN BRITAIN TOO

There are a lot of miles between here and Berlin but not much distance between something they have in common-  the broken energy markets of the six big energy companies here in Britain and  similar failures by energy companies in Berlin.

The German companies which have failed may  now be re-nationalised.

A referendum  on re-nationalisation has just been held in Berlin following a  similar decision by the second German  city, Hamburg, which has now returned its city grid to civic ownership.

Here in Carlisle there have been similar thoughts of a return to civic ownership, but this time of the city`s 6,500 former council houses, now owned by the largely unaccountable Riverside Housing Association of Liverpool which has 55,000 homes nationwide.

Riverside has just revealed that David Jepson (left) its deputy chief  executive had a total income last year of £393,000 which is 120 per cent more than the Riverside chief executive, Carol Matthews.The total income of Ms Matthews is  several thousand pounds more than the Prime Minister.

Mr Jepson`s last year`s income is part of a redundancy package which included a payment in lieu of  notice " for business reasons", reports the  business magazine, Inside Housing.

The magazine says that only a month after his redundancy, Mr Jepson became interim chief executive at another big housing association, the 13,000 home Regenda Group. The salary was not disclosed.

Such massive pay offs are not new to Riverside. Nor are massive jumps in the rents of Riverside tenants. In Cumbria this year, Riverside bills for rents in Carlisle rose 30 per cent more over twelve months than rents in  social houses  in the similar town of Barrow which remain in council ownership.

The 30 per cent difference was revealed following an investigation by Carlisle Tenants` and Residents` Federation.

Fairer bills for  all householders is what the critics  now demand from the big  six energy companies, together with an end to fat cat pay-offs for the bosses, better competition between companies and better regulation by the Government.

In Berlin and Hamburg there were similar demands of the companies until it was decided that a return to civic ownership was the only solution to the broken market there.

The critics of Riverside and other housing associations make the same demands and see a return to civic ownership as the only solution to fat cat pay-offs, rising household bills, lack of competitiveness and poor regulation by the government.

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