GRENFELL;THE GROWING DEMAND FOR A BETTER DEAL FOR TENANTS

Carol Matthews 

and something stronger

than Horlicks

Housing boss Carol Matthews who famously appealed  to the nation for sympathy about her sleepless nights,  is now again threatened with sleeplessness . Like other housing

bosses, she is in the firing line after Grenfell.

Following that terrible fire, there is now is a growing demand in the country for a much better deal for social housing tenants. And a much better  policy on social housing that will put an end to the scandal of the war on these tenants by the government.

CAROL MATTHEWS...down the road of privatisation

On both counts Ms Matthews will  struggle as chief executive of the Liverpool- based Riverside Housing Associaton.

Why will she stuggle? Because her organisation `s bossy ways with tenants. And her organisation, far from being a traditional housing association serving

tenants, has gone down the road of privatisation.

Riverside is now a property  development company  geared to profitmaking from its tenants, the people it now calls  customers.

So it was no surprise a couple of years ago when the then Chancellor George Osborne ordered that for four years there was  to be cuts in all social housing rents   that Ms Matthews had sleepless nights.

Those cuts would cost Riverside £100 million, it was estimated at the time. Worries about that £100 million caused the sleepless nights she said in an article in the social housing trade paper, Inside Housing.

Communtiy Voice Carlisle  light-heartedly suggested a remedy for Ms Matthews` sleepless nights. We said she  should take more Horlicks at bedtime.

Two years later, we at Community Voice arer still wondering  whether or not Ms Mattthews took our Horlicks advice.

So we hesitate in again recommending Horlicks or even something stronger to cope with the new worry for Ms. Matthews: the  growing demand for a better deal for tenants  and an end to the government`s war on them.

What we do recommend is that Ms Matthews prepares herself for worse news. We recommend that she reads  a certain  newspaper article which will give her some idea of that worse news: a new boost to social housing that the Labour Party has in mind for organisations like Riverside following Grenfell.

With Labour now in the ascendancy  and  the future of the Prime Minister Mrs May very much in doubt,  a Labour government  very soon cannot be ruled out.

The article, from The Guardian, is by Nick Forbes, Leader of Newcastle upon Tyne City Council.

Part of the article is reprinted below:

Here’s the real backstory to Grenfell – the Tory attack on social housing

The story of Grenfell, unfolding before us, is one of government failure followed by a shameless scramble by ministers to deflect blame.

It is vital that we ensure the legacy of this disaster is not only that we prevent another fire tragedy such as this, but that we halt the Conservative attack on the very concept of social housing.

To be clear, council leaders in Kensington and Chelsea failed residents, but the blame does not stop there – just as the debate over Grenfell cannot be limited to fire safety.

Right now, this government is doing its best to ensure the public inquiry focuses on cladding and fire safety, because ministers know what happened last month is linked to a far bigger injustice that they are desperate to escape scrutiny on.

At its core, the tragedy in Kensington cannot be understood except in the context of the continuing Tory attack on social housing.

If this government is allowed to turn the Grenfell Tower tragedy into a debate over only cladding and fire regulations, it will have escaped justice following years in which it has demonised those who do not own their own homes.

NICK FORBES:dream of decent homes for all is in crisis

 What we have seen since 2010 is a full-scale attack on the values behind social housing and the quality of the socially rented homes the government is prepared to back.

For evidence, just look at what the government has done and said on social housing rent.

In 2015 the then chancellor George Osborne announced that the rent councils charge tenants would be cut by one per cent instead of rising with inflation. He didn’t do this to gladden the hearts and minds of council tenants.

The government knows that rent money is reinvested in social housing, and knew also that the cut would drastically reduce the money available for repairs, refits and the building of new homes. In other words, the policy was a deliberate attempt to degrade the quality of social housing.

At the same time, the government was trying to introduce an ultimately doomed pay to stay policy which would have seen rents rise for those who earned more than poverty pay.

The message was clear. Ministers believed they could reduce the money available to maintain council houses and thus force people into the private sector.

Or look at the building regulations, and the lack of any local oversight. Buildings can go up and councils have no right to know what they are made of, if the developer chooses to have a private sector firm sign off on regulations.

As a new documentary on the disastrous legacy of Thatcher’s right-to-buy policy shows, the dream of decent homes for all is in crisis. What can be done?  

We have somehow entered an era in which the basic principle that the state should provide security and comfort for its citizens has been abandoned by a government that is determined to provide only the absolute minimum.
  
 Carlisle Tenants` and Residents` Federation publishes this blog. Information about the Federation is available on 01228 522277 or 01228