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Dear Sir, Your article "Camden ballot signals trouble ahead for ALMO election hopes", (Property People, issue 399) describes a real dog's dinner. Camden's director of Housing, Neil Litherland, is quoted as having said that an ALMO that may never be voted into existence needs to prepare. It may be a revolutionary concept but I would suggest that he conducts a vote first, and, if he wins it, he then prepares. This business is about the government's belief that housing associations develop better than councils, and effectively confirms the belief that ALMOs are rebundled h.a.s. Paddington Churches HA, a member of Genesis, now in charge of West Hampstead HA, now called Pathmeads HA, have been converting one-bed flats into family homes and, just down the road, converting family homes into one-bed flats. Houses in good condition get stripped to the bone and revamped whilst others with cracks that one could almost shake hands through are sidelined. Can any council in the land compete with this? Where is the evidence that HAs develop better than councils? If Camden's ALMO was to become a fine institution, then it could teach the housing association sector much. But it is emulating the worst aspects of the h.a. culture; they are holding meetings in secret. And as for accountability and control, where is the Housing Corporation in all this? Why do the National Housing Federation take no action? The Chartered Institute of Housing could help; what has it done? The Independent Housing Ombudsman, who depends upon HAs for his income, is bordering on worthless. Meanwhile, WHHA's original debt of £3m has risen to £11.5m under the management of PCHA. Is this what Camden tenants really want?
Yours sincerely,
Peter Rutherford. |
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