WHOSE SONG IS CAROL SINGING?

Riverside
spin doctor
rubbish hides
tenants` 
distress

Why did we win? Why did we lose?And who was to blame? The political debate goes on...Even the Riverside  Housing Association`s spin doctors  have joined in with what appears to be a good dollop of rubbish.

The  sticky fingerprints of these spin doctors  is clearly evident in an article couple of days ago about the general election  in the influential social housing magazine, Inside Housing .

The article is  claimed to be written by the Carol Matthews, the   overall boss of Riverside, the giant Liverpool property development organisation.

The article says:”Let us readjust to the new political landscape after the election and focus on the communities we serve”.

If Riverside  Chief Executive Officer Matthews  really believes  what she has written  here and  has not written this rubbish to order  from her spin doctors she need go no further than do a bit of her precious focussing on the  community of Longtown(Cumbria).

In Longtown, her precious focussing would find a great deal of distress hidden away by her spin doctors.

In Longtown, sixty of Ms. Matthews` tenants are now destined for a fourth winter of freezing homes because they cannot afford  to pay for the energy produced by her dodgy boilers in their homes.

Fortunately, the general election has produced some genuine focussing on Longtown: the five Penrith and the Border constituency candidates all expressed their  support for the freezing tenants in their continued  distress. (See the previous post on this blog).

Much of this genuine focussing by the candidates follows a lot of hard work in the background by Paul Dill, secretary of the tenants` group, Longtown Action for Heat. He has managed to fit   this valuable support for the tenants between his exams at Lancaster University where he is studying computer science.

For Paul, 22, computer science is a handy course to study  because he is  also fast developing his Facebook entry which is  devoted to Longtown  Action for Heat.The entry is fast expanding ( and is where, incidentally, this blog is also available.)

And there has been genuine focussing too from Carlisle City Council.The Labour council leader Councillor Colin Glover and Longtown  Conservative councillor Ray Bloxhan had an hour-long meeting last week in the leader`s civic centre office with two of leading members of Longtown Action for Heat.

The two,  Chairman Jimmy Robb and his colleague Tim Hall were impressed with their  warm reception.Jimmy said afterwards:”I don`t think Councillor Glover realised the full extent of the Longtown problem.

“ We were glad to supply him with a  great number of documents as evidence of Riverside`s appalling management for many years. We look forward to a further meeting and taking things forward again.”

Councillor Bloxham has supported the Longtown tenants  since the heating problems started. And another Longtown councillor, Cumbria county councillor Val Tarbitt  is also a  continued stauch supporter.

She is hopeful for some success from the city council initiative. She is continuing with plans for more meetings with Jimmy Robb and Tim Hall.

Councillor Glover  plans further meetings with Riverside tenants  throughout the Carlisle area as he builds up a picture of the full  extent of Riverside`s  many failings over the years.

One city councillor told this blog:”Councillor Glover has a big task ahead of him.There are lots of Riverside tenants and leaseholders with lots of worries and they all have to be listened to.”

Sadly, this months`s council elections were not kind to one man who started this listening- and  also started genuine focussing on the Longtown tenants` plight. Liberal Democrat Councillor Michael Gee lost his city council seat at Dalston despite admirable work helping struggling Riverside leaseholders and tenants.

Carlisle Tenants` and Residents` Federation which has campaigned  for many years against Riverside has paid tribute to the  work of Councillor Gee  and his efforts which resulted in his being the first councillor to succeed in getting the city council involved in helping the tenants and leaseholders.

A spokesman said:”This was an  historic breakthrough.Councillor Gee deserves our grateful thanks”

 
Community Voice Carlisle is the blog of Carlisle Tenants` and Residents` Federation. Information  about the Federtion is available on 01228 522277 or 01228 532803. 

HUSTINGS APPEAL BY SUFFERING RIVERSIDE TENANTS

`Heat-or-eat`:

election hopefuls

send support

Results are published today of a  campaign to get support  from parliamentary candidates for tenants in Longtown(Cumbria) who cannot afford to heat their homes.

All five candidates fighting Penrith and the Border constituency were contacted by Longtown Action for Heat, a community group formed by  an estimated 60 tenants of Riverside Housing Association of Liverpool

The tenants say that for  more than three years they have had to suffer  from cold homes because of  rocketing energy bills caused by Riverside`s dodgy boilers which the tenants say should be  replaced.

Paul Dill puts the Longtown case at Westminster last year

 In some cases, hard-pressed 

tenants  have had to chose 

between paying for heating  their 

homes or  paying grocery 

bills...heating or eating.
                                                                                                                                                                  Paul Dill, Secretary of the community group said today: "We wish to thank those candidates

 have sent us messages of support and hope that this support will lead to a solution of a problem that is causing real suffering and has gone on far too long”

Replies from candidates (in italics)  are as follows:

  

BRYAN BURROW  Green Party

 A warm and comfortable home should be everyone's right, and it is shameful that in a country like the UK 'heat or eat' can be a real choice for some families. The Green Party would aim to cut energy costs across all sectors, through reducing demand and increasing the efficiency of our housing. We would cut bills and ensure warm homes for everybody by ensuring that all new dwellings are built to zero carbon standards.
For existing homes we would reduce energy demand through intensive retrofit programmes of home insulation aiming to retrofit  9 million homes to the Passivhaus refurbishment standard (EPC Band C) by 2020, as part of a new Green National Infrastructure programme. This would start in areas with high levels of fuel poverty. These would focus first on improving
 conditions - and reducing the energy costs - for poorer households, particularly those suffering fuel poverty.
 Such a nationwide programme would be a win-win, creating thousands of jobs, giving people warm and comfortable homes to live in, cutting bills and reducing the amount of energy the UK has to import. As a Green Party candidate I am horrified that almost one in five households are living in fuel poverty in this country, mainly due to the poor condition and low energy efficiency of much of our housing.The Green Party believes that no one should have to live in a cold home, or have to choose between heating and other basic needs.

 In addition to supporting Green Party policy which would help people out of fuel poverty in Longtown,  I will explore funding possibilities to support legal action against  Riverside Housing Association."

 NEIL HUGHES Liberal Democrat

  

I completely support the residents' campaign in Longtown and have attended several recent meetings on this topic. Only this morning I have again contacted John Barker, Secretary of Carlisle Tenants`and Residents` Federation & Jimmy Robb, Chairman of Longtown Action for Heat, to assert my support for the

campaign.The best of luck with the campaign.


RORY STEWART Conservative

Mr Stewart was asked about thermostats which  had been mentioned in one of his leaflets and made this statement:

The new technologies I was referring to, were devices like smart meters,which allow individuals, and even communities as a whole, to monitor their energy usage. But I have also been pushing smart grids which extend the control and saving to the distribution and transmission networks. As the technology develops, we should hopefully find ourselves in a world where we
 can adjust our energy consumption throughout the day depending upon flexible tariff rates.
 We made some progress in my first term as MP trying to setup
 Wigton as one of the first fully connected smart-grid towns in the country.
 Further details on the project can be found on my website here -
 www.rorystewart.co.uk/category/energy/
The technology could definitely play a big role in Longtown, and could possibly help resolve some of the disagreements over heating and energy use that residents continue to have with Riverside. If re-elected, I am of course only too willing to continue working alongside local residents to try to see Riverside definitively resolve this issue.

JOHN STANYER (UKIP)

To date, there has been no response.

LEE RUSHWORTH  (Labour)

 To date, there has been no response.

NO RIVERSIDE DEMOCRACY AND NO RIGHTS

`A major fraud on tenants and leaseholders across all of  social housing`

Jimmy Devlin, Chairman of North West Tenants` and Residents`Assembly congratulates Carlisle Tenants` and Residents` Federation, and  Carlisle city councillors in a message to the Federation.  He says that the councillors` challenges to Riverside  and those of the Federation are  demolishing the controlled "scrutiny" which was imposed on housing organisations, giving them control over opposition from  any  tenants and leaseholders.  In other words, Riverside dictatorship and supression of democratic rights.

This is Jimmy`s message to the Federation:


"Around 2010. the government decided that  social housing regulation would change in parallel with the local government  changes involving  Localism etc   

 "Instead of regulation involving the Audit Commission monitoring standards (services to tenants) the HCA (Homes and Communities Agency)  was established  and that's when they changed to "co-regulation"  which I said was really no regulation as the HCA was only interested in viability rather than quality of standards to tenants (services)  .

"Since then, housing associations have been given almost total free reign to control everything (service charges and delivery etc)  on condition that they plough their surpluses (as they are usually not for profit so make surpluses instead)  into developing new homes ........now they call them affordable homes .....despite the unaffordability being obvious to most people.

"Scrutiny is totally controlled by the landlord`s staff ...I know dozens of activists who initially believed the ministerial hype about tenant-led scrutiny . Most have since woken up to the reality and withdrawn their consent by withdrawing  from the totally landlord controlled "participation/Involvement"  . Me included.

"Unless tenants seize real power ...nothing will ever change ...and this is unlikely  when most politicians (MPs and councillors) don't understand the sector.....or housing in general. 

 "Even so, so- called professionals working in the housing sector are very poorly informed . A good example is the public gaffe by Riverside boss Dean Butterworth in didplaying a lack of knowledge of what exactly is the  BRE (Building Research Establishment) which he recently employed.


"High salaries to acquire a better level of staff .....same old excuse ...with no real scrutiny they are getting away with murder (literally when tenants are affected by preventable fires, collapses, gas explosions etc)

 "Exposing the shortcomings, incompetence and corruption  is , I believe, the best (and only?) way to highlight what amounts to a major fraud on tenants and leaseholders across social housing ."

Community Voice Carlisle is the blog of Carlisle Tenants` and Residents` Federation. Information  about the Federtion is available on 01228 522277 or 01228 532803. 

STALINIST RULE UNDER ATTACK .

Riverside procedure

is dodgy say

councillors

Polling only days away  and the debates go on, except  the non-debate about the national housing crisis. None of the political parties in the run up to the election seems able to tackle  this crisis .

For this failure, blame the incompetent politicians. Here in Carlisle, on top of the national crisis, there  is  a second housing crisis. For that, blame an incompetent landlord.

The landlord is the giant  Liverpool property  developer, Riverside Housing Association, now under increasing attack for the way it has run its  6,000 homes in the Carlisle area for more than a decade.

The incompetent politicians offer bribes and giveaways such as  a new right-to-buy to get you to vote Tory. The incompetent Riverside has nothing to offer.

Nothing to remedy its three year record of failure to provide affordable heat for its freezing tenants of Longtown. And nothing to remedy other  failures going back to the Riverside takeover of the city council houses twelve years ago

Many of  these long - standing failures are  coming under scrutiny  by members of the  local authority, Carlisle  City Council. It is the first time the council have intervened in this way and is an historic intervention.

And after that intervention, what? Surprise, surprise...it has just emerged that the councillors find their hands are tied. Why? Because Riverside`s complaints procedure which  the councillors are using to carry out the scrutiny is not up to the job. (Riverside`s many frustrated tenants and leaseholders have known  for many years that the complaints procedure is not up to the job!)

So a new complaints procedure has had to be put in place in order that  any scrutiny by the councillors will be really thorough and hold Riverside properly to account.

All very different (and a very welcome change)  from  Riverside  of previous years. 

Then, any   complaint by Riverside tenants and leaseholders was met with  a bullying response through its Stalinist Persistent Complaints Procedure, through its abolition of all  tenant groups and through its persistent threat to kill off  the activist group, Carlisle Tenants` and Residents` Federation.

News of  the council`s frustration at the  dodgy complaints procedure  came at last week`s meeting of another activist group, Cumbria Riverside Action Group.

That group  heard from a Riverside leaseholder yet another long saga of negotiations after she was faced with inflated items on her bills.

She detailed the items and her struggle to get justice from Riverside. Her persistence paid off and she told the group that she had managed to get £1,700 removed from the bills.

All very good. But her pleasure at this success was tinged with regret.

She said :”How many other leaseholders are faced with Riverside`s inflated bills running into thousands of pounds and unlike me, they are not  ableto fight for justice?

“I feel sorry for these people. They have no choice but to pay up and keep quiet”


Community Voice Carlisle is the blog of Carlisle Tenants` and Residents` Federation. Information  about the Federtion is available on 01228 522277 or 01228 532803.