This year, the Alternative Housing Awards was presented outside the plush Grosvenor Hotel. A venue wrapped in wealth, exclusivity and privilege. They coincided with the industry awards taking place inside the comfort of the hotel.
See our gallery of pictures and videos of the evening.
The 2019 Tarnished Trophy winners were:
HA executives have little to be proud of. The sector collectively reported a surplus of £5bn in 2018, while the CIH reported that 165,000 social homes have been lost to the sector over the last six years.
It’s not hard to see why HAs have lost much of their original social purpose. Top executives were paid on average over £173k in 2018, up 4.3% on the previous year. The highest earner was David Cowans who received almost £600k. Their wealth is not trickling down to their staff, whose average pay rises in 2018 were below inflation. The percentage rise in repairs spending also fell below the rise in CEO pay.
They have little understanding of the struggle to survive faced by many of their staff, tenants or service users, nor the homeless population. Their self-interest is clear.
Join us to name and shame the worst of these landlords as they arrive to self-congratulate, wine and fine dine.
The Alternative Housing Awards are presented annually by SHAC to name and shame housing associations for poor performance as landlords and employers.
Please give SDRA in Totnes a mention,their houses are falling apart but they are busy building new expensive private houses on the strength of owning our houses. Please let me remain anonymous as I’m disabled and have no family if I get evicted. No wonder there aren’t enough social housing anymore. Furious.
Love the award of a toilet seat this associations need to wake up to their responsibilities that exclude the ever filled pocked
Love the award of a toilet seat associations need to wake up to their responsibilities which excludes the ever filled pocket
Are all Housing Associations UK Living Wage accredited employers? https://www.livingwage.org.uk/become-a-living-wage-employer
The reason I ask is because a lot of the front line jobs seem low wage. Anyway thank you SHAC for standing up for staff and tenants
Thanks Ange Angel – unfortunately not all HAs are Living Wage employers, which is very poor. They should not just be living wage employers but paying their staff well, and investing in good training and development for their staff, and applying decent working policies. The sector has an operating surplus of £5bn so affordability is not an issue. However, too many pay low and are cutting back on staff benefits. For example, many are now cutting sickness leave for example forcing sick staff to come into work. This is hardly creating a better service for tenants, residents and service users!