HOUSING ASSOCIATIONS AND THE "DANGER" OF WORRIED COUNCILS

Sweetness and  Light...           
and Cameron`s attack dogs

David Cameron`s attack dogs have  been called off. Everything is now Sweetness and Light. Housing associations can relax  while they  face up to the big  loss of income the attack dogs have caused.

And of course, housing associations also face up to the big cuts in operating costs they  have been forced to make.

                             

Last year`s  cuts  to  tenants` rents  caused by the attack dogs 

cost one association, Riverside, £100 million  which in turn led to lost jobs and  lost community services.

And incidentally,  it has also led to lost sleep at nights for the Riverside chief executive, Ms Carol Matthews, worried about the £100 million.

Other senior housing associations officials warn of a crisis  to come for all 1,700 associations  after the attack dogs, if they cannot get back to their core purpose of providing social housing.

So, a big welcome to Sweetness and Light.

Not such a big welcome however  to a government U-turn this week that  will increase the protection for housing associations 

Not extra protection from Mr Cameron`s attack dogs. Oh no! This is extra protection from the "danger" of worried councils who might, heaven forbid, want to keep a check on what housing associations are up to and what they do with the millions of pounds of taxpayers` cash they get.

Keeping a check  for example in the Carlisle area on botched Riverside  heating arrangements in many of its properties  and on dodgy administration, both of which have made life  very hard for dozens of tenants and leaseholders. Just like Riverside boss Ms Matthews, many of these people also are having sleepless nights. 

The U-turn comes in an amendment  to the Housing and Planning Bill now before parliament. The amendment would give the government the power to create regulations  which would limit or remove the ability of councils to exert influence over housing associations.

Councils for example would no longer would have the right to have  representatives on the governing boards  of  the associations.

Carlisle City Council  has exerted that right for 14 years. Ever since  the city handed its council houses to Riverside in 2002 the council has had four representatives on the Riverside governing   board.

How effective these four representatives have been in keeping a check on Riverside is debatable. For 14 years  that organisation has   been unhindered in its  policy of bossyness to  tenants and leaseholders and  its policy of asset stripping on the city estates.

What is not debateable is the new city council policy  of  bringing pressure on Riverside issue by issue.The policy was  initiated by the Leader Coun Colin Glover and has  resulted   in improvements at Riverside for the first time in those 14 year.

Now that policy is in danger from the Housing and Planning Bill.

Fortunately, the bill  with its damaging amendment is still on hold: it has yet to become law.

What then about  Mr Cameron`s Sweetness and Light?

Is that still on hold?

And the attack dogs?

Are they stlll being held?Tightly held?


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

STRAINS SHOWING ON HOUSING ASSOCIATIONS

Get real Riverside,

and  abandon

your bossy

ways

There are more perils ahead  as Riverside Housing Association struggles  in Carlisle and in Maidstone, 300 miles away. Riverside has been warned to end its bossy and inefficient ways.

In  Carlisle the county town of Cumbria, there are  now new job cuts... an additional 11,  this time from the maintenance team after the  22 job losses through the  closure of Riverside`s Careline  telephone support network for the elderly and vulnerable.And the number of staff working in  Riverside`s Carlisle head office has been cut  by 18 through re-deployment.

Maidstone town centre

In Maidstone the county town of Kent, the  angry tenants who have formed the Tenants Against Riverside organisation are stepping up  their campaign via the web site they themselves have created.

News of the job cuts has led to speculation that   Riveside may soon close its  Carlisle office and run its 6,000 Carlisle  houses and flats from the Liverpool head office 100 miles away. It did the same thing  last year when administration of the 300 leaseholder properties was moved from Carlisle to Liverpool.

Politically, these Riverside problems are being highlighted  in the run-up to the May local elections where several  Carlisle Labour candidates support  a growing  movement to return  the Riverside houses to ownership by  the city council.

Meanwhile, storm clouds are gathering for Riverside and the 1,700 other housing associations as two influential  figures in the world of social housing  warn of perils ahead if bossy  and  inefficient  associations like Riverside do not  move into the 21st century and change their ways.

Riverside has yet to learn that it is not the lord-high-and-mighty and its tenants are not serfs.

Mathew Gardiner. Chief Executive  of the Manchester based Trafford Housing Trust writes in the social housing trade paper Inside Housing about the need for much greater accountability.

Move fast...Mathew Gardiner

He writes:“In an age of greater freedom from regulation and greater transparency through technology, the strains (on housing associations) are now really starting to show.   

"We need to move fast; our reputation is inherently linked to the accountability we demonstrate for the value, and sometimes the lack of it, we create for all our stakeholders.”

New danger...Andrew Cowan

And solicitor Andrew Cowan of the old-established City of London law firm Devonshires writes  in Social Housing, another trade

paper, that there is a new danger  to housing associations from the Charity Commission. 

He says that the commission is using new powers following the scandal of  the aggressive tactics used to raise money by Age UK.

 He writes:

“As the need for public subsidy grows, housing associations are set to become significant housebuilders...But as these operations ramp up, so do new sources of potential complainants – including housebuilders themselves who may see competition against entities who do not pay tax as unfair...

“Charging higher rents to working households within a charity, could lead to allegations of profiteering....

Housing associations will need to ensure that their market and quasi-market rent businesses are clearly distinguished from their core rented activities... 

“And if housing associations want to keep their charitable status, they must continue to demonstrate that they are involved in charitable activities.”

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