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Dear Sir, Your headline "Camden ballot shoots ALMO down in flames" (Property People, issue 417) shows that a central lesson may not have been learned. Paddington Churches Housing Association (PCHA), a part of the Genesis Housing Group, runs 25,000 homes in north London. They regularly flout British Law, the Housing Corporation's rules and their own regulations. They were turned into a housing company by Margaret Thatcher, and love it. While, for cost reasons, they ran central heating pipes unlagged through the earth rendering the heating too expensive to switch on, they bank £59,000 profit every day of the year. PCHA tenants have no effective recourse. Their ombudsman depends upon the landlords for his income to the extent of 91%, and, to the best of my knowledge, has never accomplished any significant change. Camden tenants were not washed down with the last rain storm; they know many of these unfortunate tenants, and also know that the proposed ALMO is merely another housing association in a very thin disguise. The council's leader is quoted as saying that the ballot was a vote of confidence in Camden's housing department. This is rubbish. Tenants voted against the proposal on the ballot paper. If anything, it was a vote against housing associations. A large section of the housing association sector is in a mess. In the meanwhile, the government should pay the funding that it was planning to pay to this ersatz housing association directly to Camden and stop messing about. Yours sincerely, Peter Rutherford, Chair, Tenants Association (in exile)•
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