Letters to the Editor. 15/5/03.
Dear Sir, The letter from the Executive Member for Housing, Councillor Charlie Hedges, (Everyone must take part in £250m Almo debate, CNJ May 8) skates round the issue of who, in actual reality, will have control over the housing of council tenants. If the ruling management board contains council worthies, miscellaneous city financiers and business consultants and a couple of tenants to make it look good then what we have is a housing association with a new and sexy makeover. For council tenants the reality may turn out to be bleak. Genesis/Paddington Churches Housing Association have completed their colonisation of the troubled West Hampstead H.A. Since then the name has changed to Pathmeads and our debt has been run up from £3m to £11.5m. The current figure is secret as are all its management board agendas, many tenants' personal files, its Annual General Meeting and even their Rule Book. We are denied a tenants' association and any consultation in contravention to housing corporation regulations. Before council tenants are thrown into the jaws of an ALMO they must be told how the board will be accountable and to who, and how, if it underperforms, it can be replaced. Housing Association tenants can be stuck often with at best appalling mediocrity and at worst incompetent idiots. However, when he was Deputy Leader of the Council, Councillor John Dickie urged embattled WHHA tenants to form a housing co-operative. This they did, and it is called Camden Residents in Shortlife Housing, (CRISH). This project may offer a glimpse into a future for tenant-led housing and the massive cost benefits that can flow from it. Council tenants must remember that they control the whip hand. They can choose. Yours sincerely, Peter Rutherford Chair West Hampstead (Pathmeads) H.A. Tenants' Association (in exile) |