Over the last few weeks, ITV has broadcast a series of articles highlighting terrible social housing conditions from a cluster of tragic cases in both council and housing association properties. ITV's series of Housing Stories has charted disrepairs in many forms. Using the format of a longer documentary, ITV brought many of these stories together… Continue reading Surviving Squalor: ITV’s Conversation Starter
Author: shacaction
SHAC is about bringing housing association and coop residents together with housing workers so that we can campaign on issues of common concern. We aim to fight the damaging effects of the increasing commercialisation of housing associations in all its negative manifestations.
Lara Tate: Lessons for the Sector
By Carl Davis In December 2020 the social housing sector was rocked by a county court judgement. The court’s findings were scathingly critical of leading G15 housing association L&Q's handling of a case involving serious racial harassment. L&Q's treatment of a young black female resident had breached a code of practice on protecting tenants from… Continue reading Lara Tate: Lessons for the Sector
Service Charges: An Informative and Energetic Discussion
SHAC's meeting on Service Charges and How to Challenge Them heard from two excellent and informative speakers, with many attendees posting their thanks and appreciation for the contributions. Ed Spencer - SHAC Ed demonstrated a powerful piece of software that he has developed to help analyse service charge statements and receipts. Using the software, he… Continue reading Service Charges: An Informative and Energetic Discussion
Peabody Sells the Family Silver
By Tim Smith I recently witnessed surveyors prepping the three-bedroom flat upstairs for auction after the death of my neighbour, a secure tenant. It will be the second Peabody social home sent to private auction in this street in the last six months. The first to go was a ground floor one-bedroom flat converted for… Continue reading Peabody Sells the Family Silver
Homes England’s Unaffordable Housing Programme
Homes England, has announced its list of ‘Strategic Partners’ to receive funding under the Affordable Homes Programme (AHP) over the next five years (2021 to 2026). Although the funding is from central government, Homes England is the government body responsible for allocating the funding and monitoring its use across England. The Homes Englad announcement lists… Continue reading Homes England’s Unaffordable Housing Programme
Not One Resident’s Voice
By Carl Davis L&Q chief executive Fiona Fletcher-Smith must be hoping that the long bank holiday weekend has induced collective amnesia over the damning report in Sunday's Observer (here) on the persistence of appalling living conditions in L&Q homes originally exposed by the paper in 2018. The ongoing scandal of disrepair continues, despite L&Q commissioning… Continue reading Not One Resident’s Voice
Bitter Sweet Charity
By Carl Davis In the Islamic tradition there is a saying that when it comes to charity "the left hand shouldn’t know what the right is doing". It means that good deeds and acts of charity should be carried out discreetly for the sole benefit of the intended beneficiaries, not the moral aggrandisement or any… Continue reading Bitter Sweet Charity
The Wrong Awards
On the 25th November, the social housing sector will hold the UK Housing Awards ceremeny to congratulate itself on the great job it has done over the last year. The event is sponsored by Inside Housing Magazine and the Chartered Institute for Housing. The Wrong Awards This is the wrong thing to do. The sector… Continue reading The Wrong Awards
Hyde: A Very Bad Apple in a Very Rotten Barrell
Oh, the irony. Or is it hypocrisy? An announcement has hit the headlines. Peter Denton, former CEO of Hyde, has been appointed to lead Homes England, the government body responsible for housing investment. Denton quipped: The government has an ambitious agenda of not just more homes but decent, affordable, safe, energy-efficient ones that sit well… Continue reading Hyde: A Very Bad Apple in a Very Rotten Barrell
Shepherds Bush Shambles
The executive of Shepherds Bush Housing Association (SBHA) have been condemned as "unfit to govern" by some employees and tenants horrified at the landlord's culture of mismanagement. Examples of failings provided to SHAC include incorrect service charge bills being sent to around 900 leaseholders over the last eight years. Among the estates affected were the… Continue reading Shepherds Bush Shambles
