Beware of tenants’ ‘friends’ with a privatisation agenda

Published: 13 May, 2011

• ARMS’-length management organisations (Almos), like Homes for Islington (HfI), were established when the then Labour government was pushing various forms of privatisation of council homes. It made this a requirement for gaining access to funds to bring homes up to its defined Decent Homes standard. 

However, councils across London are gradually getting rid of their Almos and are bringing council homes back under their direct control. With the Decent Homes work now virtually complete and, at a time of huge spending cuts, Almos are increasingly considered as an unnecessary and expensive layer of bureaucracy.

The question that has to be asked is: why is Islington’s Labour-controlled council bucking the trend and why has it instead decided to pump extra money into employing a “tenants’ friend” to consult with a cherry-picked group of individuals, shamelessly including non-council tenants and leaseholders, to decide on the future of our homes?  

Of course Labour, like the previous Lib Dem administration in Islington, has a history of using so-called tenants’ friends, whose apparent remit was to provide independent advice on the benefits or otherwise of council housing privatisation.  

But as they say, he who pays the piper calls the tune and, as expected, with steering groups of selected individuals in tow these “friends” always came up with the same sort of colourful graphs printed on glossy paper to demonstrate just how much tenants did want privatisation of their homes; even when at a later date tenants’ petitions and ballots demonstrated the opposite. 

If HfI doesn’t go when its current contract period ends, we will live with the constant threat of back-door privatisation and the potential that HfI will become a housing association, as former Lib Dem leader Steve Hitchins always made very clear was the ultimate aim.   

PHIL COSGROVE 
Joseph Trotter Close, EC1

• I LOOK forward to the day when Islington’s councillors do what they are actually paid to do. Why can’t they manage this borough, instead of abdicating their responsibilities by simply farming out the most important area of their charge to a private company, whimsically referred to as Homes for Islington (HfI).

Letters by PJ Leamy and Councillor Terry Stacy represented  different views (It’s time that someone else was in charge of our estates, April 29). However, they gave readers the opportunity to discuss the merits of the council’s latest proposals in the public realm prior to the proposed official consultation process.

Personally, I see any form of ballot on the subject of housing management, as suggested by Cllr Stacy, as being extremely dangerous. 

The only time a ballot is legally required is in the case of stock transfer, and although the present council has supposedly ruled out such a move, can you trust the word of a politician?

PJ Leamy highlights the fact that company law prevails over residents’ interests in an arms’-length management organisation (Almo) regardless of the claim that HfI’s board is tenant-led. Tenant-led? Rubbish. I was on the original Almo board and resigned rather than support a policy of secrecy. If the so-called tenant board members cannot or will not report back to tenants they shouldn’t be on the board, since their presence does more harm than good.

Nevertheless, since they have now voted to pay themselves (up to £8,000 annually) for all the hard work they do, I strongly suspect they’re extremely unlikely to be rushing in droves to resign their posts in the interests of true tenant empowerment.

If the council is so keen to save money it should  resist duplication, take all our property back under direct council control, let councillors and council officers do their job and rid us of this private company called an Almo, which is well past its sell-by date and therefore no longer wanted by long-suffering residents.

Dr BS POTTER
Chairman, Islington Leaseholders and Islington Federation of Tenants

• AS reported by the Tribune (Will the Town Hall bring it all back home? April 22), Islington Council will be holding a major consultation over the next few months about the future of housing management in our borough.

With Decent Homes investment coming to an end and big changes to housing finance next year, we believe now is the right time to review our housing management arrangements and to ask residents what matters most to them in terms of the service they want. 

We are recruiting a residents’ panel and independent tenants’ advisor to help steer the consultation, and we will soon be writing to all council tenants and leaseholders about how to get involved. We want to make sure there is a whole range of ways people can have their say – through surveys, group meetings, a residents’ convention and so on.

That is one reason why we disagreed with a Lib Dem proposal in February to push ahead with a hasty reorganisation of the council’s housing management without any mention of resident consultation.

The review now beginning will set the course for housing management in Islington for several years to come. 

So we hope all interested residents, staff and councillors will get involved in the consultation and have their say.

CLLR JAMES MURRAY 
Labour executive
member for housing