Charging us double

Published: 06 August, 2010

• I MUST draw readers’ and hopefully the Fairness Commission’s attention to the ongoing issue of the double charging of council estate residents. 

When the arms-length management organisation was formed in 2004 (Homes for Islington), this created a division in the way funds were allocated and charged and estates and their running costs became segregated from Islington street properties. 

If you live on a council estate you pay extra for lighting the estate roads (street lighting budget), repairing estate roads (roadworks department), and grounds maintenance (Greenspace). 

As an estate resident, whether leaseholder or a tenant, you also pay extra specifically for anti-social behaviour officers, which essentially offer the same service as a community police officer without the power (council tax policing budget), extra charges for bulk refuse collection and graffiti removal despite the fact that every council taxpayer is entitled to five free bulk refuse collections per year (same team as for the council but separate billing), recycling (same again), digital TV services (25p per week for tenants living on council estates),  training courses for tenants (ESF, council tax etc). 

Under the Liberal Democrat council administration this was how things were done – making some of the poorest people in our community pay the most to live in Islington properties which, it was claimed, there was not enough money to bring to a decent state of repair. I am sure many would hope that to create a fairer Islington this practice of double charging to keep Council Tax low will now finally stop.

JUSTINE GORDON-SMITH
Ilex House, N4