Housing Matters 16 November 2009

I am sure that many folk have been left bereft at the lack of Housing Matters posts during the last few weeks but apologies I have been a bit busy. A pity since there has been some interesting housing stuff going on recently.

Why did the most highly paid Housing Association boss ever - John Belcher - leave Anchor Trust?
Inside Housing speculates here on the reasons why the £391,000 per year CEO left in the same year that the Trust posted a £35 million loss. I’m intrigued that there are rumours that the going rate for an early bath CEO is a year’s pay upfront (no Schedule One problem with that it appears while with more junior staff earning far, far less it is often a different story). Is it anything to do with the anti-trade union decision by Anchor to de-recognise Unite as its trade union last year? I see that the relatively new Chair of the Anchor Board is Aman Dalvi the Head of Regeneration and Planning at Tower Hamlets Council. Maybe it was something to do with Hyde HA CEO David Eastgate at this year's Labour Party conference comment here about excessive CEO pay? There are “several highly paid outliers” but “don’t tar us all with the same bush”.

Chickens live better than Children
Roof Magazine here reports on the campaign by Shelter to update the 1935 definition of overcrowding. Suggesting that MP’s have more concern about the living conditions for factory chickens than children living in overcrowded homes. Applying these standards and actually explaining them to residents is at best completely embarrassing to any housing officer never mind the resulting personal misery of overcrowding for our tenants. Unfortunately Shelter have joined forces with London arch Conservative Mayor Boris Johnson who thinks that the fairer taxation that would be needed if you were actually serious about ending overcrowding is comparable to Stalinist mass murder. Hmmm.

Housing Associations to float on Stock Market
I have no doubt that this story will go up and down in line with the likely expectations of a Tory Government next year.

A Million Voices for a Million Homes
On Wednesday at the House of Commons there was the launch of UNISON/Apse report into the rebirth of Council Housing. This is part of the UNISON Million Voices Campaign.

FED attacks rents cuts
The National Housing Federation not unsurprisingly attacks the decision by the Government for them to cut rents in line with the latest deflation figures. This is a serious issue for many Housing associations but I am still trying to remember exactly what was the attitude of the FED to the abnormal inflation figure of 5% last September?

What would the founders of the Housing Association movement think of such a headline? Just a thought.

(picture taken in a West Ham Newham Homes estate during a summer evening while fighting the good fight)

Housing Matters 18 October 2009

Housing association rents to come down? Rents are linked to the September Retail Price Index (RPI). We now have deflation of 1.4% which could mean a real reduction in many rents (it's complicated) of 0.9%. The government have got to make up their mind what to do since housing associations have declared that if this happens it will mean less money to invest in new homes.

Many staff are also very interested in this issue since some pay deals are thought to be dependent on what will happen. There is even a threat of legal action against the government over any forced reduction in rents. Which seems a little barmy. The obvious retort by tenants will be that they didn’t see many Housing organisations complaining about last year’s RPI 5% increase in rents?

London Mayor Boris has set a 10 year target of 333,800 homes for the GLA but the top 3 borough targets are 28,850 new homes for Tower Hamlets, 26,000 for Greenwich and 25,950 for Newham. So East London boroughs politically controlled by the Labour Party have to house the most rather than less densely populated wealthier Tory boroughs? Hmmm. The word gerrymandering suddenly comes to mind for some strange reason?

Labour Housing Minister John Healey wants to take on Tories at next election over housing issues and challenges them to a live TV debate. There should be “clear red water” between Labour and Tories on this issue.

There is outrage by tenant groups over the suggestion by the regulator TSA that lifelong tenancies should be dropped in areas with long waiting lists. After all we don’t want middle income folk to live amongst the poor now do we? (hmmm YES WE DO!)

Safe as Houses - I’ve signed the No. 10 petition by Inside Housing here – which following the Lakanal Fire and Notting Hill poisoning deaths calls for carbon monoxide detectors in all new homes, fire emergency procedures posted on each floor of a tower block and a national register of tower blocks. Positive stuff but not enough – there should be an emergency evacuation plan and procedures for each block and regular drills, all staff to be properly risk assessed and trained in fire prevention and evacuation and the retrofitting of water sprinklers in blocks. Also assessments on whether or not extra fire escapes need to be provided to existing blocks.

The National Housing Federation predicts that house prices will increase by 20% in 2014 despite substantial falls in 2009 and 2010. House prices will eventually increase because of the fundamental shortage of supply. This makes sense so unless we can massively increase supply we will again see rising prices and huge increases in waiting lists.

Anchor Trust CEO calls for Answers on Housing for the Elderly here and launches a manifesto. A valid topic but this is totally overshadowed by his obscene salary of near £400,000 per year. No one will pay attention to what he says anymore.

The LGA reports that Councils will take out a judicial review of the government decision to withdraw Decent Homes Money for ALMO’s. I’m surprised that some Councils who are affected are not taking part. Mention no names...

NB Housing Matters: is my attempt to post weekly on public (aka social) housing issues I happen to come across. Picture is of Canary Wharf from a West Ham tower block prospective.

Housing Matters 4 October 4 2009

I think that last week’s public housing news was dominated by the Labour Party conference. I will admit in advance that I will be drawn by issues I came across as a delegate.

Labour Investment v. Tory Cuts
Housing minister John Healey at a conference fringe event on Tuesday challenges the view that any new government elected next year would have to slash spending on public housing. It will happen under Tories but not Labour. Under Labour there was a medium term plan to increase capital expenditure.

CEO Excessive Pay: “Don’t Tar all of us with the same brush”
At another conference fringe in response to my question about the Housing Association sector's reputation being ruined by excessive CEO pay, David Eastgate Chief Executive Officer of Hyde Housing Association responded by saying that there were “several highly paid outliers” but “don’t tar us all with the same bush”.

I suspect that there are actually remarkably similar views of the RSL/RP sector shared by the blue rinse and pinstripe brigade currently gathering in Manchester.

Housing minister to look into HA Executive Pay.
At the “Communities” Policy Seminar (see picture above) I brought to Housing Minister, John Healey (right) attention that 2 years ago at the Labour Party conference I asked then minister Yvette Cooper about the soaring Pay of Housing Association CEO’s. I repeated the 2009 sorry tale of the Anchor Trust CEO pocketing just under £400k despite losing £35 million. When one of the panel heard that Anchor Trust had been originally set up by “Help the Aged” he said are you sure it was not set up by “Help yourself”. The Housing Minister said he would look into the issue and asked the housing trade unions to share any information they have about this issue with him. No problem with that methinks.

Housing issues in Prime Minster Gordon Browns conference speech
Another big push on anti-social behavior; more family intervention projects, help for 200,000 homeowners to stay in their home and supported accommodation for children with children.

Tory secret plans to triple rents and end security of tenure.
Labour Housing Minister John Healey (again) attacks Tory housing plans - which we all know will happen if they get in.

“My Mum gets shower fitted in Sheltered Housing Association Flat”
And she is really pleased...

Housing Matters 20 September 09

I’m going to try and post every weekend on the weeks topical Housing issues. This will be usually from a Public (aka Social) Housing perceptive.

My main source will be of course the trade bible “Inside Housing” which is run on behalf of the CIOH - but if anyone has any other news or opinion then please let me know (email via “view my complete profile” and “Email”).

So...

Anchor Trust Boss pockets “£391,000” annual pay – this story is just unbelievable. His increase this year is 20%, his average employee increase is 2% and the average salary of an Anchor Care assistant is just £12,500. Check out this, and that and even this. Labour ministers I have tackled before on this issue had hinted that “something will be done” about such pay increases. Yeah. I don’t think that salary restriction in the private sector will ever happen but in regulated organisations dependant on the public purse (housing benefit and Council tax) we simply expect better. I will continue my whinging at next week’s Labour conference.

“Yvonne Hossack wins disciplinary hearing” – The scourge of the sheltered housing establishment defeats an attempt at the Solicitors Disciplinary tribunal to take action against her. She even had the Home Secretary, Alan Johnson, in his capacity as a MP to give evidence in her favour. It appears that Alan rewards good service with large G&T’s in Strangers Bar. What an excellent idea!

Housing News reports that the RBIA want 4 million homes to be retrofitted within the life time of the next Parliament for energy conservation. Another good idea but is this ambitious enough?

UNISON speaker Rose MacGregor at the Housing debate at the TUC conference calls for over a million new homes to be built and for all new developments to include 30% of homes for social rent. The debate also noted that there are 1.7 million households on the housing waiting list and 63,000 registered homeless. So maybe a million is far too low?

Deflation not as bad as feared – Which is good for RSL’s and maybe for their staff. Some Housing associations are trying not to pay their staff any rise since they fear rents will be cut by as much as 2-3%. Tenants may of course see things differently?

Finally, somewhat off message but sort of Housing news - tonight I spoke to my old Mum on the phone. She is a tenant of a Welsh Housing Association in an over 50 block (which use to be her primary school when she was a young girl) and she was really happy because her landlord had agreed to replace her bath with a shower! A pleased and contented tenant.

Stop the Press!

(Picture of East London skyline from the Leopold Estate in Tower Hamlets)

Anchor Trust "Union Busters"

This is an amazing story - so-called “not for profit” Anchor Trust who pay their CEO, Dr John Belcher, £327,000 pa have derecognised Unite following a dispute over a restructure and regrading which has led to pay cuts for many low paid staff.

I have posted here, here and here in the recent past on excessive pay in the social housing sector. The Unite press release points out that some Anchor staff are actually on minimum wage (£5.73 per hour) while Inside Housing report that some relatively poorly paid staff are £1,400 per year worse off. Anchor started off as “Help the Aged" Housing Association.

Unite are appealing to the Central Arbitration Committee over this decision.

Doesn’t anyone in Anchor senior management have any common sense and realise the damage they are doing to their organisation and the social housing movement by such actions? Has massive pay actually gone to their heads in the same way as happened with the Banks? They are now attacking the unions for trying to defend the pay of their members?

Surely local Councillors and Assembly members (of all political parties) who believe in free trade unions must question whether they should have anything to do with Anchor Trust as partners in any future developments until this dispute is resolved. What are the board and the regulators doing about this? I would be very surprised if new Housing Minister Margaret Beckett is very impressed either.