THEY ARE ALL AT IT!

HSBC scandal,

Riverside scandal

and a warning
from Holland

Another day, another bank scandal. This time it is HSBC`s   Swiss bank and its wealthy clients. The tax they haven`t paid and their  massive assets hidden away in secret  vaults  has caused outrage.

There has been outrage too about a scandal equally as bad involving  a housing association. The scandal involved a prison sentence for fraud, a suitcase full of cash and losses of 2.7 billion euros  from currency bets that went wrong.

That  housing association was  Vestia, Holland`s largest association and details of the scandal are now starting to emerge in this country, says Jules Birch in an article in the influential social housing magazine, Inside Housing.

Jules Birch draws some very  serious conclusions from the scandal. He says that the present trend of developments in British housing associations are becoming a mirror image of the very questionable Dutch developments prior to the Vestia scandal.

The Dutch lessons, he says are: Be alert to these equally questionable British developments and be aware of  the scandal they can lead to.

Here at home there are scandals of a different kind involving  Riverside Housing Association of Liverpool, the largest landlord in the Carlisle area and one of the biggest  housing association in the country.

 Riverside`s latest scandal comes in an article  in the  association`s  current newsletter which is sent to all   its 50,000 tenants and leaseholders, including  an estimated sixty in Longtown, now suffering their third winter without  adequate heat in their homes... they cannot afford proper heat because of Riverside` dodgy boilers. Many of the sixty are at the end of their tether and can take no more.

The  newsletter article was headed: “Putting an end to Winter Deaths”.

The writer says this”As temperatures continue to plummet in this first week in February and during the final days of the Cold Homes Week campaign, it’s as good a time as any to share my thoughts on how and why we are tackling fuel poverty. Our bid to combat barriers to keeping warm has been on our agenda for a few years now.”

The tenants were outraged at such grossly insensitive comments. Jimmy Robb, leading the  fight against Riverside  to get properly heated homes spoke for the sixty tenants and said:”The nerve of them.”

The nerve of Riverside too, in advertisements it has been running every week for two years in  the Cumberland News, Carlisle.

The advertisements proclaim that Riverside is”transforming lives and re-vitalising neighbourhoods.”

That is rubbish, say Riverside`s sixty  freezing Longtown tenants at the end of their tether. “Yes, our lives have been transformed by Riverside. But not  in the way  the Riverside advertisements claim. The claim is outrageous.”

Outrageous or not, the advertisements  suddenly stopped appearing this month. Riverside may have pulled the plug on them, Or the Cumberland News may have pulled the plug.

The advertisements claimed that Riverside is supporting (presumably, financially) the page of the Cumberland News where the advertisements appear,  the district news page.

Possibly, the Cumberland News has come to the conclusion that it is just not good policy to have the support of Riverside on one page  of the newspaper and to have articles criticising Riverside`s shameful record at Longtown on another page.

Whatever the reason: Good riddance to the Riverside page!

YOU TURN IF YOU WANT TO, THE COUNCIL IS FOR TURNINg.

Press statement
RIVERSIDE CRISIS:

CITY COUNCILLORS 

TO ACT

Problems  facing Riverside Housing Association and its tenants are to be discussed by Carlisle city councillors following a meeting of a group of councillors yesterday, it was revealed today.

The meeting was later described as positive and critics of Riverside hope that the councillors` intervention will end the  crisis at Longtown where Riverside  tenants are suffering their third winter in freezing homes which they cannot  afford to heat.

Critics of Riverside also hope that the councillors` intervention will end  another crisis, involving Riverside`s excessive charges and rents to  many of its 6,000 tenants and leaseholders throughout the Carlisle area.

No details of yesterday`s meeting of councillors have been released. The meeting follows criticism by a recently- formed all-party  protest body, Cumbria Riverside Action Group which last week decided to lobby city councillors to get them to intervene.

Previously, the  Riverside crisis had been growing after the Riverside Carlisle regional director, Mr Dean Butterworth was  criticised at the city council`s Community Overview and Scrutiny Panel.

The criticism came from the Dalston Liberal Democrat Councillor Michael Gee who said that Riverside had been bossy and unhelpful in dealings with its Dalston leaseholders.

Critics of Riverside also welcomed the councillors` intervention as historic because this is the city council`s first  intervention  since the city council houses were privatised and handed to Riverside twelve years ago.

Critics of Riverside  have been led by the Carlisle community group, Carlisle Tenants` and Residents` Federation. For many years, the Federation has been urging the council to intervene.

A Federation spokesman said today: “The council has always backed away from intervening against Riverside. It said Riverside  was a separate body and the council had no power to intervene.

“This intervention is therefore historic and marks a clear change in the policy of councillors from the policy that has continued for  12 years.

“ We wish the councillors well in this intervention and hope that it brings a quick resolution of all the many problems that Riverside tenants and leaseholders  are now battling with.”

On a separate issue, the Federation has made a formal complaint to the council`s Chief Executive, Mr Jason Gooding about  a ruling by his deputy, Mr Darren Crossley.

Mr Crossley ruled that the Federation had failed to engage with the council in two oral questions about Riverside put to the Community Overview and Scrutiny Panel. Mr Cro ssley also accused the Federation of using the panel to  make statements of discontent.

A Federation spokesman said:”We find Mr Crossley`s ruling insulting and offensive, particularly as we always had excellent relations with the council and were encouraged to ask questions.

 “Clearly, there has been a dramatic change in the council`s attitude to the Federation which now appears to be quite hostile”

Issued by Carlisle Tenants` and Residents` Federation

For further information, please ring 01228 522277 or 01228 532803

February 11 2015

UKRAINE BREAKTHROUGH, AND HERE TOO...?

 

Our lives also at

stake , say freezing Riverside tenants

A breakthrough to end the conflict in  Ukraine, we all wonder, as more peace talks are planned for Wednesday. And possibly also, a breakthrough here in Longtown and Carlisle in the  conflict  with Riverside Housing Association?

Many lives are at stake in Ukraine. In  Longtown,  the freezing Riverside tenants warn that lives are potentially equally  at stake in that town also... from the effects of the unrelieved bitter cold.

It is the tenants` third ice box winter of unrelieved bitter cold. They cannot afford  heat because of rocketing power bills caused by dodgy Riverside boilers in their homes.

What then of the possible breakthrough in Longtown and Carlisle?

It comes with news that after many months and years, councillors are at long last wanting to be involved in the continuing serious and fast-deteriorating Riverside  situation.

Councillors are to have an informal meeting  in a couple of days about what  they can do about it.

The meeting is between three senior councillors: Heather Bradley, a cabinet member of the Labour council , Ray Bloxham a former mayor and a leading Conservative, and Michael Gee, a Liberal Democrat and a leading critic of Riverside.Councillor Gee initiated the informal meeting.The city mayor, Councillor Steven Bowditch, may also attend.

Councillor Bloxham is one of the two Longtown  city councillors and  has been  at the sharp end of  criticism of Riverside from the ice-box tenants who  are his constituents.

News of the meeting was welcomed today by Carlisle Tenants` and Residents` Federation which has campaigned continuously to get the city council involved since the city`s council housing  stock was privatised twelve years ago  and handed to Riverside.

A Federation spokesman said " All the political parties will be represented at this meeting. We wish them well and feel sure they will come up with something to help the freezing  tenants of Longtown and the many other tenants and leaseholders who have serious problems with Riverside.”

Last week a  Cumberland News (Carlisle) article on the Longtown scandal  highlighted the story of Annie Graham. She  is 77 and  is struggling  with a £2,500 power bill which includes £110 for eight days during a recent cold snap.