old-fashioned
democracy
After Grenfell nothing will
be the same was the claim by many people after the disastrous tower fire with
its 72 dead victims.
Now, a year later and after
the appalling allegations at this week`s public enquiry into the disaster, that
forecast is proving increasingly accurate.
Nowhere more accurate than
the growing demand to ensure that tenants` voices are properly heard in a democratic
way in future say two London tenants` leaders, Pat Turnbull and Ron Hollis.
In an article they condemn
the failure of the landlord, the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea to engage with its tenants at Grenfell .They say that there has
been similar failures throughout the country by other local authorities and by
housing associations.
One association, the
Liverpool-based Riverside Housing Associations is notorious for these failures.
Riverside owns 50,000 homes and is one of the country`s biggest housing
associations.
Its many failures have been
well documented over the years in posts on this blog which is published by
Carlisle Tenants` and Residents` Federation.
Riverside`s failures led to
the heating scandal at Longtown, near Carlisle,
where tenants faced with grossly-inflated £4,000 heating bills were
forced to chose between heating or eating.
The article by Pat Turnbull and Ron Hollis is in the influential social
housing publication Inside Housing. It says:
“Over the past 20 years there has been a
gradual crumbling away of support for Tenants` and Residents` Associations and the landlord-wide Tenants` Federations,
which enable tenants to share knowledge and speak as a collective on matters of
joint concern.
“Landlords – councils
as well as housing associations – increasingly favour ‘consumer-style’
approaches to capturing what tenants are saying, such as ‘focus groups’ and
‘scrutiny panels.’
“But these are a poor
fit for the landlord-tenant relationship.
Not only are
participants often self-selected or chosen by the landlord, there are many
cases where tenants are told that their role is not to raise the views of their
neighbours, nor to be accountable to them.
“Ultimately, if the
concerns are unwelcome, their views can easily be dismissed as those of just
one tenant - the ‘usual suspect’, perhaps.”
The article
concludes: “Tenant panels are no replacement for old-fashioned
democratic organisations”.
Carlisle Tenants` and Residents` Federation publishes this blog. Information about the Federation is available on 01228 522277 or 01228 532803
Carlisle Tenants` and Residents` Federation publishes this blog. Information about the Federation is available on 01228 522277 or 01228 532803
