|
|
 |
| |
Residents have claimed that work on their homes has been left unfinished and that toilet fittings have meant they are unable to reach the floor |
Furious tenants slam doors on refurbishment
‘Decent Homes’ contractor promises to investigate complaints from residents whose properties are being upgraded through huge £300m maintenance programme
ONE of the contractors working on a massive repairs programme in hundreds of Camden’s council homes vowed to take action last night (Wednesday) after a New Journal investigation revealed concerns among tenants about the progress of the project.
Some tenants are so dismayed by the state of work done on neighbours’ homes that they are refusing to let contractors past the front door.
The Apollo Group said in repairing some flats it “may have failed to meet the extremely high standards we set ourselves” and promised to rectify any faults that were flagged up.
In a series of interviews, residents told reporters of their concerns about the Town Hall’s attempt to spruce up their homes in a long-awaited project to bring flats and estates up to government standards universally known as “Decent Homes”.
The council has brought in companies to fit new bathrooms and kitchens in one of its biggest ever undertakings. Work will take place on hundreds of homes every day for the next five years and thousands of tenants will be affected by the scheme.
Controversially, the £300million project is being funded in part by the sale of other council homes that have fallen vacant and are supposedly so expensive to repair that the outlay would not be worthwhile.
Despite public unrest at this strategy – the letters pages of the New Journal rarely go to press without a tenant or politician wanting to express their frustration on the subject – another batch are due to go under the hammer at an auction at Bafta’s headquarters in Piccadilly today (Thursday).
Among the lots up for grabs to the highest bidder are a garden flat in Hemstal Road, a four-storey house in Messina Avenue in West Hampstead, a three-floor house in Chester Road, Highgate, and a flat on an estate in Cromer Street, King’s Cross.
In plain terms, tenants and housing campaigners oppose these sales because the properties are turned over to private developers and will never be council assets again.
The natural consequence is that the number of homes available to help the thousands of desperate families on the waiting list is reduced.
Lib Dem housing chief Councillor Chris Naylor has always defended the tactic by putting the sales in the wider context of the lack of funding available to Camden from the Labour government.
He defends the council’s stance in an article for the New Journal today.
“We owe it to our tenants to get our homes up to the Decent Homes standard as soon as possible,” he writes. “We must have homes which can be kept warm and clean, where our elderly and our families can live positive lives. It may involve the council having to make some difficult choices to achieve it, but it will be worth it in the future.”
Cllr Naylor has also suggested renting out council flats on the private market, although Conservatives in the Lib Dem and Tory coalition are understood to have confronted him over the wisdom of this alternative plan. It has been suggested that flats could be rented for as long as 30 years.
Tenants have, however, made it clear at a series of meetings they would rather the council lobbied harder for extra money rather than raising what they see as a white flag.
And the New Journal has learned that relations with council chiefs have been hit hard in recent weeks by reports coming out of Swiss Cottage and Kentish Town from tenants who say they are the “guinea pigs” for the Decent Homes work.
By selling homes to pay for the work, tenants were hoping for a top-quality return, but several say they have been left disappointed.
Some residents have even refused to allow contractors into their homes because of the unfavourable stories from neighbours.
The concern is currently centred on the Hilgrove estate in Kilburn where tenants have complained of wonky tiles and toilets which are fitted so high their feet can’t touch the ground. Jobs have been left half done for weeks before finally being completed, tenants told the New Journal.
Apollo, which has completed work on the estate, said most of the feedback from residents had been “very positive”.
There is no evidence or suggestion that mistakes have been made in every single flat the company has worked on.
The contractor said problems were only reported by tenants in a “small number” of cases.
But Hilgrove resident Norma Boyle, 73, won’t let the workmen in.
“I have lived here for 48 years and not once has the council repaired anything – it hasn’t even had a lick of paint,” she said. “That’s disgraceful but I won’t have this work done. They have damaged other people’s properties. Most people are saying that if they’d known what it would have been like they wouldn’t have agreed to it.”
She added: “It’s immoral when you think about it what they are doing. Why are they selling the homes off to pay for this?”
Mrs Boyle’s refusal to accept the upgrade to her kitchen and bathroom has been followed by two other tenants on her floor of the eight-storey block.
Music teacher Janet Obi-Keller, 49, has set up a panel for residents on the estate to deal with concerns about repairs.
“Most of the complaints are to do with the length of time it is taking to do the work,” she said. “I know of two people on my floor who are refusing the works because they don’t want to go through the nightmare of having their lives turned upside down for such a long time.”
Receptionist Yvonne Dacko, 47, who also lives on Hilgrove estate, said: “I think they bought the toilets as a job lot – but then they realised that they don’t fit. They’ve had to raise it up off the floor. My feet are dangling off the ground.”
A common complaint from tenants in Hilgrove is that the tiling only stretches three tiles up the wall from the surfaces. The Town Hall has said that this is not fault of the contractor. It is due to the fact that the council has decided to be careful over spending and follow a repair rather than replace strategy to keep costs down.
The lack of money to play with, tenants were told at a recent meeting with deputy housing director Phillip Colligan, means their won’t be a gold-plated overhaul. This relates to how much Camden has to spend and not Apollo’s workmanship.
Mr Colligan warned: “It is a case of cutting your cloth with what you’ve got.”
Hilgrove resident Tom Connell, 59, said: “This is supposed to be Decent Homes. I was left without a kitchen for three weeks.”
A spokesman for the Apollo Group said: “We are passionate about the quality of our work and resident satisfaction is our number one priority.
“We have received very positive feedback from Camden residents but in a small number of cases on the Hilgrove estate we may have failed to meet the extremely high standards we set ourselves. A full and thorough investigation will be carried out and if there are any instances of poor quality work they will be rectified immediately.”
Mr Colligan told a recent meeting that “we always said we would make mistakes at the start of this” but added that as the programme of repairs continued experience would mean that less problems would be encountered. |
 |
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
