Wed 15 Aug 2018, 10:26 AM | Posted by editor
LETTER from Mark Langabeer, Newton Abbot CLP, personal capacity
Dispatches, the Channel 4 documentary programme, argues that it’s not just private landlords and property developers that profited from the current shortages of affordable homes. It’s also the bosses of Housing Associations, who are now the main providers of social housing.
Dispatches revealed that there are 179 Housing Association executives ‘earning’ more than the Prime Minister. Top of the list is the boss of Clarion, the largest provider of homes for social rent. He earned £390,000 and it’s the view of many residents that they behave like corporate business, rather than not-for-profit organisations that supply homes for those that can’t afford to buy. They are a long way from being charities as they are sometimes portrayed.
Dispatches interviewed former residents of the Sutton Estate, owned by Clarion in the Borough of Chelsea. They are intent on demolishing the flats and replacing many of the flats into luxury apartments and drastically reducing the number of homes for social rent .
Housing Associations have argued that since 2010, government grants and subsidies have been slashed and selling some of the stock is the only way of building new affordable housing. It has resulted in the loss of 100,000 homes in the rented sector that paid a social rent.
Dispatches travelled North to one of the most deprived areas of Britain, in Sunderland, and spoke to a former resident of the Pennywell estate that had been demolished. The owners, Gentoo, plan to build new homes without any guarantees on affordable renting. Enquiries suggest that Gentoo Housing Association have never built homes at affordable rents.
Housing Associations have also sold homes at auction in swanky hotels at equally swanky prices. They have been bought by developers and investors. However, the programme also revealed that Emily Thornberry, Labour’s spokesperson for foreign affairs family also bought a former housing association property.
Although Labour’s policy supports council house and housing association house sales only if they are replaced in equal numbers, the above will be used in an attempt to divert attention away from the causes of the housing shortage. It is my contention, that Labour MPs should only accept the income of the average skilled wage in order that they remain in touch with the experience of working people.
