By Carl Davis The ongoing struggle for reasonable adjustments and the normalisation of adversarial landlord-tenant relations. Securing reasonable adjustments remains an uphill battle for disabled tenants, largely due to landlords’ entrenched resistance. According to the Housing Ombudsman’s Attitudes, Respect, and Rights report, 68% of tenants consulted reported that their landlords had refused to provide reasonable… Continue reading The Ongoing Struggle for Reasonable Adjustments
In the middle of January, an extraordinary meeting was held between tenants and residents of Hyde from the Stockwell Towers estate, the Stockwell MP who helped facilitate the meeting Bell Ribeiro-Addy, and Hyde chief executive Andy Hulme alongside other Hyde staff, plus local councillors. The meeting was extraordinary because Hulme is notoriously shy about engaging… Continue reading Familiar Stories from Hyde’s Meeting with Stockwell Tenants and Residents
Democratising social housing : health and wellbeing, tenants' rights, resistance, and collective action. By Carl Davis Last week, I found myself wandering round the Hard Graft exhibition at the Wellcome Collection. Hard Graft looks at the impact of work on health. It mainly considers the physical impact on exploited and underrepresented workers, who they are,… Continue reading Hard Graft – Challenging Social Housing Conditions
The Regulator of Social Housing has reported that service charge income for housing associations soared by 15.8% to £1.9 billion in the year to March 2024. Also in 2024, service charge disputes brought to the First Tier Tribunal concurred that tenants and residents had been overcharged in over 70% of cases. Taken together, these figures… Continue reading Tribunals Research Finds Overcharging in 70% of Cases as HA Service Charge Income Soars
By Grace Lally, Housing Rebellion A steady stream of shoppers in Hastings town centre on Saturday stopped to read and take photos of the new ‘Community Notice Board’ with a rather grim theme - the unrelenting misery caused by the housing crisis in the town. Part of the 'Rogue's Gallery' in Hastings The hoardings surrounding… Continue reading Campaigners Create Pop-Up Rogue Landlords Gallery
Residents of One Stratford say they are trapped in a system of financial abuse by One Housing Group (OHG), a housing association which merged with Riverside Housing Group last year after falling into financial difficulties. At least 40 residents at One Stratford are now withholding service charges or ‘balancing charges’ after receiving a series of… Continue reading OHG-Riverside Residents Strike Back
At the end of October, SHAC published a whistleblower's article on a number of failings by Southern Housing which left tenants and residents without basic facilities in their homes. The revelations came from Mr Brittain and his colleagues from the Kent Regional Resident’s Panel (Kent RRP) scrutiny panel. The SHAC article was soon followed by… Continue reading Coverage on the BBC and a Sudden Flurry of Fixes!
Members of one of Southern Housing Group's own internal scrutiny panels has taken the bold step of blowing the whistle over the landlord's serious failure to fulfil its responsibilities towards tenants and residents. Shockingly, they have exposed cases where the most vulnerable tenants and residents have been housed in appalling conditions and forgotten about. One… Continue reading Scrutiny Panel Blows the Whistle on Southern Housing Group
Beleaguered and battle-weary Tower Hamlets Community Housing (THCH) residents have been joined by concerned Hyde residents in opposition to a merger between their landlords. Merger talks were prompted by a £90 million black hole in THCH’s accounts. The deficit has thrown the landlord into chaos, prompting changes in leadership, and a grilling by local councillors.… Continue reading THCH and Hyde Merger: The Road to Ruin?
With great fanfare in the dog-days of the last government, Tenant Satisfaction Measures (TSMs) were introduced amid claims that they would improve "the transparency, influence and accountability" of social landlords. The TSMs have been around a while now, but where is the promised increase in accountability? Measuring Performance The TSMs require all social landlords to… Continue reading So Housing Association Tenant Satisfaction Scores Are Terrible – Now What?
