• YEAR in year out Labour councillors help residents facing all kinds of different housing problems such as delayed repairs, damp, overcrowding, poorly delivered major works and spiralling service charges.

Depressingly, for organisations that were often initially created to help the end the scourge of poor quality housing, HAs, housing associations, are often among the worst offenders in the way they respond to residents’ concerns.

Westminster Labour’s shadow cabinet member for housing Liza Begum has written to the chief executive of Notting Hill Genesis to raise Labour’s concerns about spiralling service charges for tenants and leaseholders that have more than doubled in some cases and poor performance in tackling repairs.

However they are far from alone in not doing all that they should be to support their residents, with Peabody and Network Homes other large providers that regularly need to be pushed by councillors to take action.

For too long the sector has focused on housing development away from Westminster and has been selling off homes in our city to pay for it.

If elected to run Westminster City Council on May 5 Labour will use all the powers available to it to try to improve the way HAs treat Westminster residents.
Labour will:

• Create a “preferred providers” list for HAs that want to get local section 106 contracts or otherwise build in Westminster, only for associations that are treating their residents fairly.

• Call out and campaign against HAs selling off and not replacing their homes in Westminster.

• Campaign for national reforms in the housing association sector.

• Improve council environmental health team enforcement when HAs fail to meet the required standards.

• Request the Regulator of Social Housing investigates potential breaches of the Home Standard that have caused “serious detriment” to tenants either through poor repairs or housing management services by those organisations.

• Support community housing co-operatives (learning from the example of Walterton and Elgin Community Homes, WECH, here in Westminster) and other resident-led approaches to housing management.

ADAM HUG
Labour Group Leader Westminster City Council