Property People. 14th Dec. 2000.

Association's debt backed by quango

Turmoil at the troubled West Hampstead Housing Association (WHHA) intensified this week with the suspension of chief executive and founder member Ana Bowman and financial director Douglas Wilson. And in an unprecedented move, the Housing Corporation has decided to guarantee WHHA's £3m debt while the association looks for another registered social landlord (RSL) to take it over.

In a short statement, WHHA announced it had appointed Greg Lomax, a former deputy chief executive of the Housing Corporation, as special manager and Steve Garvey as special finance advisor. Confirming the association was looking for a partner, Lomax said: "We are in discussions with two and we want to make a choice before Christmas." Commenting on the decision to provide an overdraft guarantee to WHHA's bankers, the corporation's deputy chief executive Simon Dow said: "The corporation is taking this highly unusual step in the light of the unique circumstances presented by an association which has over 2,700 tenants living in temporary accommodation. We wanted to act quickly and decisively to give WHHA the necessary breathing space to find an appropriate RSL partner in the longer term”.
But Diana Wilson, a short life tenant of WHHA for twenty years said: “For nearly three years, our small group of tenants had tried to bring to the attention of the Housing Corporation the lack of accountability and poor management of WHHA. We have had replies but very unsatisfactory. We are angry that it took so long, because it is just wasted money.”
The corporation had placed WHHA under supervision on 21 November because of “serious concerns about the RSL’s governance, financial management and financial position”. It also appointed three members to its board, later increased to four, and suspended all capital allocations. •