The apolitical ILA have invited all Islington political parties to attend a Hustings at our ILA monthly meet, to tell us how they will help Leaseholders.
Leaseholders are invited to come along and ask them how they’ll help you.
Guest Speakers from Islington’s political parties confirmed so far include:
Cllr. James Murray – Executive Member for Housing (Labour),
Cllr. Terry Stacy (Liberal) ,
Charlie Kiss (Green),
Patricia Napier (Conservative),
Pete Muswell (UKIP)
After pressure from leaseholders organisation and others, the Office of Fair Trading is to investigate Service Charges.
Evidence is invited from anyone concerned and results are due by the end of 2014. The study was first announced last year to look at services for flats in the private sector only, but 250 people and organisations wrote in about its limited scope and it has been agreed to include the millions of leaseholders who rely on councils and housing associations to run their estates.
Go to www.oft.gov.uk/subscribe to register for progress updates; and email propertymanagers.study@oft.gsi.gov.uk to send them your views and any evidence about poor service; wasted spending; and high charges. For more information: http://www.oft.gov.uk/OFTwork/markets-work/residential-property-management/#.UxcnfPl_sXU
In their detailed scoping report published 4th March 2014, the OFT said that the social housing sector was, on reflection “too large and important” to omit from their study.
The study’s full title is “Market study into the provision of residential property management services”. In April, the OFT gets merged into a new Competition & Markets Authority (CMA). info from Hackney Leaseholders
When Leader of the Council Richard Watts came to the Islington Leaseholders’ Association meeting at the Town Hall on February 12th, 2014, he spoke of the need for an entirely new council/leaseholder relationship, based on working together.With this in mind, your thoughts and input would be appreciated.
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Quite a lot of the report is nothing to do with ‘housing’ although they have clearly stated the ‘Housing Asset’ part will be used to fund it.
Council meet to ban Partners Resident Forum?
The ILA voted at their AGM to totally boycott the Councils new Residents’ Improvement Taskforce and therefore its scrutiny panel) process…as it is un-democratic and un-representative of leaseholders in the borough.
It look like Islington Council are now trying to do away with one of the few remaining structures of the pre-Residents’ Improvement Taskforce system, that is the unpaid volunteer “Partners Resident Forum” (which improves service for Partners Leaseholders & Tenants) because the PRF shows some independence of Council.
The Council is starting this process by imposing new rules and regulations for spurious reasons on the forum, without providing any evidence for its alleged issues to, or allowing any democratic debate by the forum.
These undemocratic changes may be formalised without involving the Forum, at the following council meeting this Thursday 13th March, Town Hall committee room 4 @ 6pm.
Please attend, bring friends,they do not have to be in Partners properties, just those whom object to these changes not coming to the Forum 1st, or the undemocratic way the council is trying to rush this through, without informing Partners tenants & Leaseholders!
Residents’ Improvement Taskforce arrangement update report Download
Update:14.03.14 – Thanks to everyone that attended, The Council are rescheduling any decision for the moment. We will need to wait to see what happens in the future.
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Islington Gazette,
Thurs, Feb 27, 2014
Council housing
Why not withhold PFI payments?
“[It] seems to be a pretty unsatisfactory contract,” “We’ll see what our options
are,” “We need a plan of management” and “We want to be transparent whenever
possible” (!) Cllrs Richard Watts and James Murray (housing) were speaking
about the council’s PFI (private finance initiative) housing-management
contract with Partners at a recent angry town hall meeting with council
leaseholders.
The council isn’t only an estates’ landlord. The PFI is the two-part contract under
which the majority of the borough’s 6,500 street properties are managed – many would say mismanaged. It doesn’t expire until 2033, by which time it will have cost the general taxpayer upwards of £720 million – some estimate about £1billion, allowing for interest payments incurred over its lifetime.
Bad enough? Now for the alleged sting in this nasty scorpion’s tail: “There’s ‘an eight-digit financial penalty for ending that contract.”
So here we have it – “We wouldn’t sign that kind of contract now,” but it’s too expensive to cancel. Who, one wonders, is advising the council? This is money paid by all Islington taxpayers, not only residents of the council’s freeholds. As for political will, where were the dissident voices when Gordon Brown was pushing PFI?
Ironically, the question to which Cllrs Watts and Murray gave the above answers wasn’t about the lifecycle of the contract – though searching questions need to be asked about that – but the suspension, on grounds of breach of contract, of the monthly payments by which Partners receives its guaranteed PFI monies.
Since Cllr Watts agreed that it’s “pretty clear” that work carried out by United House,
“particularly in the first round” of the contract, was “not good enough” – there was, “frankly, some pretty shocking work” (he should see some second-round examples) – why is the council refusing to consider withholding such payments?
As the questioner asked, how can a contractor (Partners) “fail to deliver with such impunity?”
If, as was stressed at the meeting, Islington wants to be a “responsible landlord”, the politicians will have to go further than this.
Meg Howarth,
Ellington Street, N7