The first Haringey repairman quickly identified what the problem was, and described it in layman’s terms to the leaseholder as a spring needing replacement in a sash window  (in fact the technical term is a spiral balance).  However, a catalogue of errors and inefficiencies by Homes for Haringey means the repair has taken 2 months and 8 visits (or ‘attempted’ visits) to resolve.

• 15th September:  first visit identifies repair needed
• 19th September: second visit arranged too soon – new spring hasn’t arrived yet
• 4th October:  spring still hasn’t arrived
• 19th October:  spring arrived – but only one operative booked when job needs two people
• 20th, 26th & 27th October:  duplicate repair accidentally booked into system results in three further abortive visits
• 9th November: final visit to complete repair

Many of these visits required the leaseholder to take time off work and spend lots of time on the phone trying to work out what was going on.  In many cases the repairman failed to show up for the arranged visit, causing even more frustration and wasted hours. However, it isn’t just this individual leaseholder who suffers as a result of this incompetence, the inefficient management of repairs mean all tenants and leaseholders suffer delays to getting jobs fixed and huge sums of money are wasted.   No wonder Haringey’s housing stock is in such poor condition.  I’ve let the Chief Executive of Homes for Haringey know about this case and asked him to look into the many errors made by his organisation.

The house, which is at the top of Stapleton Hall Road by the junction with Mount View Road, is owned by the Council and was left derelict awaiting conversion to a hostel.  This is the second derelict Council home to be taken over by squatters – a similarly large council home in Nelson Road has also been occupied, after being left derelict for a year (see previous post).

I’ve been pressing the Council and the Police to take urgent action to deal with residents concerns about anti-social behaviour, and to get this large house back in use by those who need it most.   I’m told that the police are now being very active and the Council are trying to get a Court date to evict the squatters.

However, the key issue is why are Haringey leaving valuable homes empty (and vulnerable to squatters), when there is such a shortage of family housing.  I have set up meetings in July with both the CEO of Homes for Haringey and the Director in charge of Housing at the Council, and I will be pressing them to make sure empty homes are swiftly refurbished, not left as derelict eyesores.

Clearly this is nonsense.  But even if it were true – does the Labour candidate think that we should keep quiet about the serious failures in Haringey Council for the sake of local house prices?  Is she going to contact the Audit Commission and tell them to stop rating Haringey as the worst Council in London, because estate agents don’t like it?  What does this say about her priorities?

House prices have crashed in Stroud Green in the recession and many residents are suffering from negative equity, or are unable to even get a mortgage to buy a home. I think the cause of this is more likely to be Gordon Brown’s boom and bust approach to the UK economy, rather than Lynne Featherstone campaigning with residents on important local issues like school funding and the proposed cuts to the Whittington.

I think this leaflet demonstrates the Labour candidate is suffering from a severe case of negative credibility.

I’ve been demanding action from the Council for 3 months, ever since a local resident complained to local campaigner Katherine Reece about the state of the house back in November 2009 (see post from January).  I was told that the house would be back in use by 26 March at the latest – but Haringey have failed to even start work on renovating the building, so this promise was clearly not going to be kept.

I’ve emailed the Labour cabinet member in charge of housing to express our anger at the Council’s incompatence and to demand action to sort out the squatter situation so the house can be used by a local family.  There is such a long waiting list for larger council homes, and so many families trapped in overcrowded temporary accomodation, that this situation is a real scandal.

So when residents alerted local Lib Dem activist Katherine Reece to a large 3-storey empty council house in Nelson Road (N8) I was determined to investigate why it wasn’t being used.  I’ve now got a response which shows the house has been left empty and boarded up since April 2009, and will not be returned to use until March 2010 at the earliest.

Unsuprsingly the house now looks like a dump and the neighbours must be furious.  But what is really scandalous is that Haringey Council is happy to let this house, which could be a wonderful family home, lie empty for nearly a year.   No wonder we have such long housing waiting lists in Haringey, when our Labour-run Council is so wasteful with its own housing stock.

Co-incidentially, the national Lib Dems have just announced proposals to bring 250,000 empty homes back into use, to boost jobs and tackle our housing crisis.  Ideas like this are clearly badly needed in Haringey.

The Government provide Warm Front grants for older people in his situation.  I thought everything would be sorted when the Council arranged for a Warm Front engineer to visit.  However, it turns out  there is a £3,500 cap on support, which is £800 less than what the engineer thinks it will take.

The resident contacted me again to see what I could do – as he couldn’t pay the £800 himself.  I was worried we might have to arrange for the heating to only go in certain rooms, but a few days ago Haringey Council got back to me saying they would make up the £800 gap.  This is excellent news – and I think it will save the Council money in the long run, if it keeps him healthy and in his own home.

I’m so pleased to have been able to help this guy.  Its not very often you can make such an obvious difference.  If you know of anyone in a similar position, please do look into what help might be available.

The cost to the taxpayer of installing these aerials in tenants homes will come to £8.6 million – but local Council leaseholders will have to pay these £1,000 bills themselves.  I’ve been contacted by angry leaseholders in Stroud Green, who are outraged at the levels of the charges for a system they didn’t ask for, and didn’t need - as they already had access to cable!

I was really pleased to put the taxpayers’ and leaseholders’ case to the committee, and that a local Stroud Green leaseholder – Anne Crellin from Carlton Lodge - was able to speak to the committee herself (see the picture of the leaseholder protest before the meeting).   Thanks to these efforts the committee decided to recommend that the Council explore ways of allowing leaseholders to opt out of this fiasco in future.

However, I was very disappointed that the Labour councillors on the committee blocked our attempts to review the whole misconceived programme.  Have they not noticed there is a recession on and that there are much more pressing priorities on Council resources?  What’s bad value for leaseholders is bad value for tenants and the taxpayer – they should have halted the whole thing!

Answer:  Nobody, it seems.

This weekend I had a distressed call from a Stroud Green resident who can’t get anyone to fix her roof, which has been leaking for 2 months now.  The damp is spreading throughout the flat, which can’t be nice with Christmas approaching.   I’ve put in an urgent request to Homes for Haringey, but it all turns out to be much more complicated than I expected.  The flat is ‘temporary’ accommodation leased from a leaseholder of Haringey Council.  So the Council is leasing a flat it owns the freehold on.

A Homes for Haringey officer has got straight back to me – but they haven’t worked out yet whether it is the landlord’s or their responsibility to fix it.

I’ll try to keep up the pressure for someone to take responsibility - the poor tenant must be completely confused by all this.