THIS GIANT MAY BE BROUGHT DOWN TO SIZE

If Riverside

had no place

to  hide - 

what then?

The Act is resented....Dounlas Carswell MP

Can  you imagine if  there was no Freedom of Information law? asks Douglas Carswell MP in yesterday`s Mail on Sunday.

Our answer is this: Yes, we in the Carlisle area can imagine that situation because  there has never been  such a law  as far as Riverside Housing Association  is concerned.

The badly flawed Riverside  is in fact  seriously   needing all the scrutiny Freedom of Information would allow.

Riverside, after all. is a giant organisation  owning 50,000 homes and  by far the biggest landlord in the Carlisle area with 6,000 homes.For years, proper scrutiny has never been applied.

Douglas Carswell answers  his question  by saying that  if  the Freedom of Information law did not exist MPs would still be abusing their expenses, billing the taxpayer to buy second homes.

“Information of legitimate  interest to the public would have been kept from the public”.

 Riverside  free of having to comply with Freedom of Information law  has been guilty of similar abuses and failures.  Many homes in Longtown  have had to put up with dodgy boilers too expensive to run for more than three years .And there is  still no sign of any  scrutiny that might put an an end to the impossible situation.

Many other Riverside tenants and leaseholders  have for years been charged excessively, and the Riverside administration is so bady run many tenants and leaseholders have given up on it. All these failures need proper scrutiny.

Why then  is there no Freedom of Information law for Riverside and, as it happens, for other housing associations?

These  organisations are classified as private bodies, unlike government and local authority organisations which are classified as part of the public sector. The Freedom of Information Act applies only to the public sector.

Douglas Carswell was prompted into writing his article because  the government has just announced that it wants a review of the Freedom of Information Act.

Mr Carswell says that planned review  has come about because ministers of all  political parties have come to resent the Act because it makes them constantly account for their actions.They want to water  the Act  down.

Riverside and the other associaitions are no different. Up to now they have been able  to get away with the dodgy boilers , the dodgy charges, and the dodgy fat cat salaries for top officials.

Just how much longer will they be allowed to maintain this position and hide behind their  exemption from  Freedom of Information scrutiny?  Not much longer, many people hope and believe. 

An end to that exemption is likely to follow other recent government announcements. These announcements gave housing association tenants the right to buy  and also ordered housing associations to reduce rents by one per cent.

These changes , plus the  long-established  state  subsidies for housing associations -
an estimated £60 billion of public debt - have tipped the balance  and may result in associations being transferred from the private sector into the public sector.

The Times newspaper explained at the weekend: “The Office of Budget Responsibility now says that the changes  may persuade the Office for National Statistics to deem housing associations as public institutions to reflect their apparent lack of independence.”

And if they  do become part of the public sector, Freedom of Information requirements it is expected will then apply.

That Freedom of Information exposure  might bring new hope to the suffering tenants of  Longtown. And it might  also expose to the public gaze Riverside`s dodgy administration, dodgy charges and dodgy fat cat salaries.

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