GUARDIAN WRITER AND RAG BAG RIVERSIDE HOUSING

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Housing associations are under fire...the Government has declared war on them despite their success says Guardian writer Peter Hetherington in  a challenging article this week.. 

But are housing associations a success as Peter claims?

Many people believe they are far from successful, particularly people  in Carlisle, a city which Peter knows well.

It was in Carlisle where Peter spent his early life, where he started in journalism and where if he returned now, he  could learn a completely different story about one housing association.

It was in Carlisle that the city council  stacked up an enviable  record of house building lasting over 100 years. In the years between the wars Carlisle claimed to have built more council housing for its size than any other place in England..

The council took pride in the quality as well as the quantity of houses it built. Peter`s father worked for Carlisle City Council in an executive role so  the chances are that 

Peter also knows a thing  or two about  making council house building the success story it  once was.

Sadly, councils  no longer build social housing. This work is now done by housing associations,, many of which are rag bag organisations little interested  it seems in building more social housing and even less interested in the pride  and quality of the houses that Carlisle demonstrated  for  more than 100 years.

Today, in Carlisle there is  a classic example of those rag bag organisations. It is the Liverpool-based Riverside Housing Association which took over the city`s council houses 13 years ago. Riverside  in reality is a property development organisation more interested in making profits from housing. Riverside  owns 6,000 homes and is the city`s biggest landlord.

There are many other criticisms of Riverside. It  is  a bossy organisation, inefficient in  what it does,  and ineffective and  biased in its  complaints procedure by failing to give its tenants and leaseholders   proper democratic representation for complaints and decision making.

Is there any wonder that war  has been declared, first in a quiet way by the cowed  Riverside tenants and leaseholders and second  in a much more aggressive way by  our concerned Government?  

Peter knows all about the government`s war on housing associations. His Guardian article details  the war battle by battle. Peter  says this war is aimed at ending  all social housing.

But Peter needs also needs to know about the war being waged by Riverside tenants and leaseholders in his one-time home town, Carlisle.

Peter has echoes of  Cathy,  in the famous 1966 TV film about homes and homelessness, Cathy Come Home.

The message to him is :Peter Come Home.



Note: More information about Carlisle City Council`s excellent  housing record is available on line,. The link is

https://municipaldreams.wordpress.com/2015/03/03/interwar_carlisle/

 

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

CORBYN`S FIRST SEVEN DAYS AND CAMERON ATTACKS HOUSING ASSOCIATIONS

`Jez We Can` and

    `Fed We Can`

Seven days of Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader and the Jez We Can chanting in his support becomes louder than ever, backing up  a stunning series of Corbyn rallies and speeches.

Three hundred miles away, another slogan is  catching on, a slogan that has echoes of Corbyn and his  challenging agenda. The slogan that these  supporters chant is Fed We Can.

The “Fed” in Fed We Can  stands for Federation, namely Carlisle Tenants and Residents` Federation, a long-established community group of activists  which for several years has been critical of the policies and  the work of the city`s biggest landlord - the Liverpool based Riverside Housing Association.

Riverside, now a giant property developer is today under greater attack from the Federation. And, together with other housing associations, Riverside is also under attack from other critics, notably the Prime Minister and the Chancellor of the Exchequer.

The Federation`s  present attack is centred on  Riverside`s Complaints Procedure, set up by that organisation some years ago to deal with  complaints from its 50,000 tenants and leaseholders.

It is a flawed procedure, says the Federation, flawed because there are   far more complaints about the way it works than there are about the   complaints it sets out to to deal with.

In the view of the Federation  the long-drawn- out Riverside procedure is   nothing more than a way of kicking tenants` complaints into the long grass of permanent delay. It does this by engineering un-necessary long delays into the complaints` process.

And as everyone knows, justice delayed is justice denied.

For many months there has been a steep build-up of complaints about the Riverside procedure, notably  complaints to Carlisle City Council. In response,Riverside told the council that things had changed. A brand new procedure had been instituted, Riverside  said.

But where is that new procedure, tenants and leaseholders wish to know.The Federation  asked for copies of it and found that  there had been no change at all.The new procedure was the old procedure.

And it is believed that the city council is also still hunting for the alleged new procedure.

Complaints to Riverside have always been dodgy.Tenant community groups which dealt with complaints were abolished when Riverside  took over the city` s council houses 13 years ago.

At the same time, Riverside tried to abolish the Federation. But in the place oi these groups it has never established a democratic body  to put forward tenants` complaints.

Of course, there have been  years of promises of better things to come- 13 years of these promises.There was a promise of a tenant forum and the  promise of a leaseholder forum. Where are they?

This week there was news of  even more better things  to come.

Riverside issued a grandly named document, its Resident Involvement and Empowerment Strategy.

The document has several thousand words and fills 10 pages of A4 paper. Far far too much for the average tenant to cope with. In the opinion of the Federation,----- it will take a skilled lawyer to  fully untangle it.

Words, words, words. Promises, promises, promises,

It is the sort of Alice in Wonderland situation that George Osborne, the Chancellor and David Cameron must have had in mind this week when they both attacked all the 1,500 housing associations.

They are inefficient and their performance is not particularly impressive, the Chancellor told a House of Lords Committee.

A similar attack was made by David Cameron. It`s about time  housing associations improved their performance, he told the House of Commons.

Both attacks hinted that  government pressure to make housing associations more  efficient is on its way.

The pressure is long overdue.

It cannot come soon enough.

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

RIVERSIDE TENANTS MOVE OUT ...THEY CANNOT COPE

The Corbyn 

factor and

the Sturgeon

factor

Jeremy Corbyn speculation is intensifying as we await Saturday`s result of the Labour leadership election.  Corbyn may win or lose on Saturday, but the Labour Party will never again be the same.

Corbyn....surge of support

And with the changes to the party that are now forecast from the Corbyn surge of support, there are  more  and more hopes for a solution of the housing crisis and a better deal for tenants if Labour gets back in power.

These increased hopes are nowhere higher than in Longtown and other places in the Carlisle area where a majority of tenants are in  homes owned by the much-criticised property development organisation, Riverside Housing Association of Liverpool.

These Riverside tenants also have increased hopes from another  political  quarter: from what is happening a mile or two away in neighbouring Scotland.

Sturgeon...more control of landlords

Nicola Sturgeon`s Scottish nationalist government has just confirmed plans that would effectively end the four year fiasco in Longtown ... dodgy boilers and sky-high energy bills  in about 60 properties.

The plans are for a private tenancies Bill as part of the Scottish government`s current Programme for Scotland . The Bill will increase that government`s control over  the power of landlords, including rent control and increased security of tenure.

Not for the first time,  many of the people of Longtown  are now wishing that the Scottish border was  moved that mile or two south. The border would then put Longtown firmly into Scotland  to enjoy many of these benefits.

Riverside is a bossy and shambolic organisation which  exerts far too much power In Longtown and in  the other  places in England where its 50, 000 homes are located. Riverside rents  are far in excess of   similar local authority owned homes. And its tenancies are proving less and less secure with one-year tenancies replacing assured tenancies for life.

These one-year tenancies are proving very convenient for Riverside  as it struggles to cope with the shambles of the 60 properties with dodgy boilers. Tenants in about half of these properties have quit their assured tenancies since the scandal broke and have moved elsewhere. 

They could no longer cope with the soaring energy bills and the frozen homes.

They have been replaced with tenants on one-year tenancies. These new tenants are faced with far less security. 

These new tenants are that much less likely to complain and  make trouble.

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

ANOTHER RIVERSIDE HEATING FIASCO

Stobart`s Volvos

rev and roar... `in
tune` with
tenants`

protests!

t

The revs and the roar of  Eddie Stobart`s trucks managed to drown out everything as they were put through their paces at the  weekend`s annual Stobart truck fest . The fest was a roaring success, a great  day`s entertainment for thousands at Carlisle Airport, particularly  the Eddie spotters.

For  these Stobart enthusiasts, the revs and roars of the huge Volvos and Scanias was pure music.

Surprisingly, there was another roar not  so far away. It was very  much like the roar of the engines of one of Eddie`s trucks. This  roar -  at  the neighbouring village of Crosby on Eden - also drowned out everything round about.

But this roar was far from entertaining. There was no “pure music” about it. This roar was a menace And it is still a menace.... as it has been for four years.

This roar is so much of a menace that environmental health officers  have been  brought in because of the possible damage to health.

This roar is caused by  large air source pumps fitted to boilers in  Riverside Housing Association homes in the Garth, Crosby on Eden. The roar of these pumps is the equivalent of the roar of one of Eddie Stobart`s trucks, declared the  environmental health officers.

The officers added, according to one Crosby tenant, that it was the loudest sound they had ever recorded in a house.

This roar is one shocking aspect of the  Riverside story in Crosby on Eden. There are also the rocketing energy  bills. One tenant was paying £70 a week at one stage. Now, with the  monstrously-expensive  boilers switched off for much of the time, the bill  is £30 a week.

The Riverside story in Crosby on Eden is a replica of the equally shocking Riverside story in Longtown where the energy bills of up to £4,000 a year just cannot be afforded by tenants. So in winter they freeze in their homes.

The   boilers, which as well as being insufferably– loud are dodgy.They were installed and maintained by cowboy workmen, say the tenants who  also complain about   an inefficient  and ineffective Riverside administration tackling the problem.

The shocking Riverside story at Longtown has been exposed in this blog  by Carlisle Tenants and Residents Federation activists  over a period of two years. The scandal Is also being  highlighted by two other community  activist groups, Longtown Action for Heat and Cumbria Riverside Action Group. 

Carlisle City Council is also involved through an investigation of tenants` complaints by the Leader, Councillor Colin Glover.

Now  all of these concerned organisations must come together  and give urgent attention to the suffering tenants of Crosby on Eden.

The cries for help of these suffering tenants are  very loud. 

As loud as the  roaring boilers  in their homes and the roaring engines of Eddie Stobart`s Volvos and Scanias.

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

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