DESTROYING LIVES, CRUSHING NEIGHBOURHOODS

Global perspective -  Britain

At Friends of Public Housing Vic we try and show why we must be concerned about proposed massive stock transfers of publicly owned housing to Housing Associations. In Victoria we are following the UK housing model and the plan to transfer 12,000 public housing properties is still in the pipeline and has not been scrapped by Vic Labor. But these properties have not been handed over yet.. The hyperbole and endless spin from politicians- across the board- and the community housing businesses themselves of course, is that social / community housing associations can do a better job of providing housing and that we'll all be better off.

Well, lets hear from the tenants of a major Housing Association ( Riverside )  who live in Maidstone, Carlisle, Longtown and Brampton in the UK.

( I've googled these towns and they look like such charming and picturesque places to live - what a shame that an elite's unbridled greed can spoil life for ordinary people. )

Many thanks to Carlisle Tenants' and Residents' Federation for the following post  

`RIVERSIDE:DESTROYING LIVES, CRUSHING NEIGHBOURHOODS`  29.3.16

 

Welcome aboard to The Times. This week  that newspaper devoted much of its front page to exposing the scandal  of  the grossly excessive pay of some of the leading housing associations bosses. 

The newspaper found that some of the highest paid bosses- the  housing association fat cats- ran the worst performing associations.

The exposure- nothing new to readers of this  blog - was summed up in The Times headline: '£350,000 Salaries for Britain`s Worst Social Housing Chiefs'.

So, welcome aboard to The Times. Join  Community Voice Carlisle and  the growing band of  other critics who wish to put an end  to this scandal and the many other housing association scandals that this blog has attacked in the past three years.

The  Community Voice Carlisle attacks have been directed mainly against  one in particular of those leading housing associations, the Liverpool based Riverside. It owns 50,000  homes nationwide and with 6,000 homes in Carlisle is the city`s biggest landlord.

Riverside as you would expect has had its share of fat cat bosses. Up to fairly recently, the Chief  Executive was paid £230,000 year which is about 50 per cent more than the Prime Minister (£142,000 a year). But massive public criticism- including attacks from Community Voice Carlisle- has  forced a cut-back.

Now the present chief executive, Ms Carol Matthews has to make do with £183,781.That should be enough  to buy a  tin or two of the  soothing drink, Horlicks which Community Voice Carlisle has prescribed for her. Ms Matthews has difficulty in nodding off at nights.

There is no nodding off for a new  group of  angry Riverside tenants which has sprung into life. Members of the group are so busy  attacking Riverside on Facebook and other social media that there is little time for sleep. 

The group is based in Maidstone (Kent) and is called "Tenants Against Riverside." According to Tenants Against Riverside,  Riverside in Maidstone is just as bossy and shambolic in its operations as it is here  in Carlisle, Longtown and Brampton.

So welcome on board, Tenants Against Riverside. Join The Times newspaper-once generally known as The Thunderer- and Community Voice Carlisle in a crusade against Riverside. 

That crusade could easily start with  the Maidstone tenants` version of the  hypocritical Riverside motto, "Riverside:Transforming lives, Revitalising neighbourhoods”.

The Maidstone tenants` version is this: "Riverside : Destroying lives, crushing neighbourhoods"