A group of leaseholders and shared owners in Brighton have rejected a ‘victim narrative’ and determined they will simply refuse to pay for cladding and other remediation work to their building. City Point Safety Breaches The City Point scheme in Brighton was built by Barrett Homes and incorporates 240 apartments. It was constructed just 20… Continue reading City Point Resident Resistance
By Carl Davis Earlier this week SHAC’s Suzanne Muna gave evidence to the opening session of the Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Committee’s inquiry into the regulation of social housing. After discussing disrepair more generally, the Committee of MPs turned its attention to what the panel Chair described as ‘ a bit of explosion in… Continue reading Desperation – Not Lawyers – Drives Disrepair Claims Rise
In December 2022, SHAC held a public meeting on rent and service charge strikes. Rent Strikes - Then and Now The restrictions and economic hardship prompted by Covid has triggered rent strikes in Spain and amongst students in the UK. However, in Britain, rent strikes go back much further, as our introduction explained. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VhKLeAv2RIs Taking… Continue reading Strike On!
By Joe Jenkins The issue of charity chief executive pay has always been a thorny one, but what about organisations that have charitable status but are not charities in the traditional sense, such as housing associations? Figures collated by Housing Today revealed that twelve housing association bosses ‘earned’ in excess of £300k in 2020/21. Save… Continue reading The Magic Charity Trick
The UK Housing Awards Protest - 25th November 2021 Housing association executives were unexpectedly forced to do the 'walk of shame' through protestors as they arrived at the UK Housing Awards at the InterContinental Hotel in Greenwich. The protest started outside North Greenwich tube station, with speakers including Clarion campaigner Kwajo Tweneboa, Unite Housing Workers… Continue reading Housing Association Execs’ Walk of Shame
Demi is a single parent with two daughters, one of whom has a disability. Her daughter's disability causes her pain and she regularly wakes in the night, disturbing Demi's youngest child. So now Demi sleeps on the floor of her room while the youngest has the bed. But this is not the worst of it.… Continue reading L&Q: Rats, Roaches, but No Toilet
The problems experienced by tenants and residents living in housing association properties come in many guises, from extortionate service charging to slum landlordism. From failures to comply with equalities law to a dereliction of their duty of care. All problems have two distinct common threads. The first is the relentless commercialisation of social housing, and… Continue reading SHAC Steps Up The Political Agenda
This is not a typing error. On a Hyde Housing estate in Sidcup, Kent, the housing association has charged tenants £140,398.68 for emergency light testing, servicing, and repairs work over a period of four years. All of those in the properties are on social rents. The charge equates to £2,924.97 per day. The work is… Continue reading Hyde Contractor’s 2000+% Profit on Fire Safety Services
Tenants and residents from Clare House, a tower block alongside lush parkland in east London, have slammed their landlord, Clarion Housing over woefully mis-managed – and still incomplete – evacuation of their flats. Following checks carried out after the Grenfell fire in 2017, Clarion became aware of risks to the safety of tenants and residents.… Continue reading Clarion’s Shame – Clare House Evacuation
In February 2021, senior executives in Riverside discussed a worrying trend: a sharp rise in the number of tenants and residents taking the landlord to court over disrepairs and uninhabitable homes. Claims against Riverside were averaging around 29 claims per month, an increase of over 30% since November 2018. When the report was published, there… Continue reading Riverside Leads United Front Against Tenants and Residents
