`ABANDONED ` CARLISLE REJECTS COUNCIL HOUSE BUILDING

 

Star city

fails as new housing surges

The city of Carlisle which once led the country in building  council houses is now falling very much behind as councils elsewhere surge ahead in building these homes.

Hopefully, things are not as bad as they seem and new ways of getting council house building going again in the city are being planned by Labour members of the Tory-controlled council.

COUN. LISA BROWN...spurred on

Leading the way is Denton Holme and Morton South councillor Ruth Alcroft  who is also prospective Labour parliamentary candidate for the city. She is working with her Denton Holme councillor colleague, Lisa Brown.

The two are spurred on by the  increased number of people homeless in the city and by the continued failures and gross inefficiencies of the city`s biggest landlord, Riverside Housing Association which took over the city`s  6,000 council houses 17 years ago.

Recently Riverside closed its Carlisle offices and  was accused of abandoning the city. Not so many years ago, such a situation would have been unthinkable… Carlisle  between the wars led the country in the number of council houses built, proportionate to the population.

Ruth recently tried to get a motion passed by the council calling on the council to start building again.

She told the council:  “Our country desperately needs new council houses to be built in great numbers. Our country needs council houses to be built to better standards so our housing stock will better stand the test of time”

The council rejected the motion after Councillor Liz Mallinson, a senior Tory councillor said she remembered the days of council housing under a Labour government.”The housing stock was sitting empty and in a state of disrepair.”

Despite  such negative and backward-looking views, Ruth is undeterred in her determination and plans further efforts jointly with Lisa.

ESTHER MCVEY.. crack team.

The two councillors are very much aware of the big efforts  in other parts of the country to get councils building again. Councils are set to quadruple their housebuilding over the next five years as they seek to deliver 80,000 homes according to an investigation by the social housing magazine, Inside Housing.

That figure represents a huge surge in the activities of council housing companies and follows a very significant decision a year ago by the then  prime minister Theresa May to abolish the councils` housing revenue account cap which placed a limit on the amount councils were able to borrow to invest in housing.

Today it is revealed that Esther McVey, the housing minister is to send a crack team of specialists – planners, designers and ecologists-across the country to help councils struggling to get regeneration and housing schemes approved.

Carlisle Tenants` and Residents` Federation publishes this blog. Information about the Federation is available on 01228 52227

LABOUR PLAN TO` NATIONALISE `HOUSING ASSOCIATIONS

Bossyboots Riverside

`will  get its 
comeuppance`

 
Britain`s bossy housing associations will be brought into line if Labour wins the next election. This bossiness and  its twin abuse, gross inefficiency will be ended as housing associations are taken over and “nationalised.”

A motion agreed at  this week`s Labour  conference at Brighton  commits the party  to giving local councils the powers and resources to take housing associations under direct council control.

The news will be welcome  by many tenants of  the Liverpool-based Riverside Housing Association, one of the bossiest and most inefficient  in the country- demonstrated many times in  the 18 years it has run Carlisle` 6,000 former council houses and flats.

The news is also welcomed  by Carlisle Tenants` and Residents` Federation which during those 18 years has campaigned  vigorously against Riverside`s abuses. The Federation wants Riverside to be held to account by its tenants and  the housing association regulator.

GARETH ELLIS...tenants abandoned

But  Riverside is accountable to no one-   no one but itself.

The story of much of that Federation campaigning is told in the  many posts on this blog which  the Federation publishes.

A Federation spokesman said today: We have tried over the years to get MPs, local authorities and others  to hold Riverside to account. But we have found that to be an impossible task because it seems that no one  person or organisation has the power to do that.”

News that local authorities may take over housing associations will also be welcome by the Carlisle City Council which over the years has had to deal with hundreds of complaints about Riverside  but has been frustrated in being unable to help.

RUTH ALCROFT..."build council houses."

 Earlier this year, Riverside was accused of abandoning  its 6,000 Carlisle tenants and leaseholders through the closure  of its city offices which are now on the market to let.

County and city councillor Gareth Ellis branded the  associaton an “ absentee landlord” and declared the closure to be” a sad deterioration for residents.”

Earlier this month the city council was urged to go it alone and start building its own homes in an opposition motion by  Labour councillor Ruth Alcroft. The motion was defeated but Councillor Alcroft said today:"The fight goes on"    
  Carlisle Tenants` and Residents` Federation publishes this blog. Information about the Federation is available on 01228 52227

RIVERSIDE BRANDED AN `ABSENTEE `

City `abandoned` by biggest landlord

An extraordinary recent attack on a major housing association in the House of Commons  echoes another  attack when Riverside Housing Asssociation was accused of abandoning a city where it has 6,000 homes and is the biggest landlord.

Mark Francois (left) MP for Rayleigh and Wickford in Essex, told parliament that he has “had enough” of Sanctuary Housing Group, claiming that the group had “consistently provided a poor maintenance service to many of my constituents over a period of many years”.

He said Worcester-based Sanctuary was “highly dysfunctional” and “extremely badly run”.

The attack on Riverside came from Councillor Gareth Ellis (right)  Deputy Leader of Carlisle City Council who branded Riverside an “absentee landlord”.

 

 Liverpool-based Riverside, one of the biggest housing associations in the country -with 50,000 houses- took over the city`s council houses in 2002 and up to earlier this year ran them with a local governing board and a large staff  from a smart city centre office block  in Botchergate.

Now those offices are empty and Councillor Ellis told the city council  the closure was a “a sad deterioration”  of service to  Carlisle tenants and leaseholders.

He went on: “It does  feel like Riverside are just abandoning the city. This organisation has 7,000 to 8,500 tenants in the city.

“They have always had a  customer- focussing  interface either in this building- the Civic Centre- or a few years later in the building on Botchergate.

Riverside`s Carlisle  offices now empty..."a sad deterioration."

“It seems a sad deterioration for the residents of Carlisle who have Riverside as their landlord who now  seem to have become an absentee landlord.”

After the meeting- the Business and Transformation Scrutiny Panel- Councillor Ellis said: “If Riverside did not want to manage Carlisle  accommodation, they should not have taken on Carlisle housing”
     Carlisle Tenants` and Residents` Federation publishes this blog. Information about the Federation is available on 01228 52227

DOCTOR ADDISON`S ACT OF TRANSFORMATION

City that led the way is proud no longer

This month is the 100^th anniversary of the Addison Act  that gave the go ahead to council housing which has transformed every town and city in the country.

Nowhere was that transformation greater than in Carlisle.The city led Britain in the provision of council houses in the years between the two world wars

The anniversary is being celebrated in many places and the leading social housing magazine Inside Housing plans a series of articles looking at how the act transformed the social fabric of the country and created the housing sector we know today.

  The  act – the very first housing act passed in this country –is named after its sponsor Dr  Christopher Addison(above) a doctor and surgeon and a Liberal MP for Shoreditch in London, one of the most overcrowded districts of the capital.  He brought that expertise and experience to his vision and drive for housing as the first Minister of Health and Housing.

Playing a leading part in the 100th anniversary celebrations is  the acclaimed  social historian John Boughton who has told the full story of  council housing in his recently-published book : Municipal Dreams- the Rise and Fall of Council Housing.

Sadly, there is to be no anniversary celebrations in Carlisle despite the city`s proud inter-war record.John Boughton`s book has this to say about that record:

"Carlisle with its self-defined anti-socialist  council has a good claim to have built the most council houses per head of the population: 4,702, meaning that 27 per cent of the town`s population lived in council homes by 1939".

                                                                    Inter-war Carlisle council houses at Raffles

 Perhaps  there would have been celebrations in Carlisle if Labour had retained control of the city council at the recent May elections.But the city  is now Conservative controlled and few people expect support for council housing from the Tories.

Hopefully that position can be reversed, particularly as more and more city tenants are becoming dissatisfied with the bossy and inefficient  Riverside Housing Association of Liverpool which took over the city`s 6,000 council houses 17 years ago.
    Carlisle Tenants` and Residents` Federation publishes this blog. Information about the Federation is available on 01228 52227