Letters to the Editor 30th Oct. 2003.   Dear Sir, Camden's ALMO is built on one massive lie, namley that the proposed organisation is "at arms length". According to Camden's ad in the CNJ (Oct. 16), Camden will be the landlord, will use the same staff, will have a third of the board members, will retain ownership of the properties, will set rents and decide all major policy. By what perverted logic can the Government describe this ALMO as being at arms length? The problem appears to be that Whitehall believes that money given to councils might just as well be taken to Beachy Head, and thrown off the cliff into the sea. So they are pressuring them to form effective housing associations and are then willing to pay out taxpayers' money. Paddington Churches Housing Association, now in charge of the recently crashed West Hampstead Housing Association, thoughfully renamed Pathmeads, have seen their debt rise fom £3m to £8m and then to £11.5m. They have sold £2.5m of street properties and managed to reduce the debt by only £2m. Tenants are paying £2,500 per day out of their rent money to pay off just the interest. They have been converting one bed flats into family homes whilst converting family homes into one bed flats. Houses in relatively good order are refurbished while others in bad condition are sidelined, allowed to decay, and will end up being flogged off at auction for whatever they raise. PCHA's management board meetings are secret, and so are the agendas, and minutes. Their Annual General Meetings are closed, and their most recent Tenants' Satisfaction Survey was in 1992. The WHHA/Pathmeads Tenants Association is "in exile", and there has been no tenant consultation since they came on board. There is no realistic accountability; the complaints procedure is a joke. For various reasons, this government is backed into a corner. To avoid electoral embarrassment the year after next, they would do well to inject common sense into this Mad Hatter's Tea Party, and change the funding rules without fuss or delay. In the meanwhile, Council tenants deserve better than this ALMO, a repackaged and adapted housing association.   Yours sincerely,   Peter Rutherford Chair, WHHA/Pathmeads T.A. (in exile).   Back to the web site