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Dinosaur group that gobbles up £100,000 a year
• IT is interesting to read that the Audit Commission has slammed the lamentable Federation of Islington Tenants’ Associations (FITA) for wasting £100,000 a year of Homes for Islington (HfI) money (Inspectors ask how £100,000 grant is spent, April 6). Nobody knows where the money goes and there are no agreed outputs.
The fact that this entity is a dinosaur from the Margaret Hodge era is not mentioned in the Audit Commission report.
The statues of Lenin in the Town Hall and the massive debt to German municipal lenders may have gone but FITA remains, led by Brian Potter.
The Potter-led Islington Leaseholders Forum also came in for swingeing criticism in the same report.
Following the successful ballot to form a borough-wide leaseholders’ association, it is essential that ordinary leaseholders come forward to run it and work with HfI and the council to deliver real change in charging policy and delivery of service. If you can help make the association work and are interested in standing for the committee that will run it, contact us at leaseholders@blueyonder.co.uk or call Mike Read for an informal chat on 020 7609 3289.
OWEN HART
Islington Leaseholder Action Group, Malta Street, EC1
• YOUR article fails to initially identify that the Audit Commission’s response does not at any point suggest there is any problem with the Federation of Islington Tenants’ Associations (FITA) but, on the contrary, is somewhat critical of Homes for Islington (HfI) in its inability to monitor FITA’s performance adequately. HfI holds FITA to account by way of quarterly and annual performance indicators, the format of which are prescribed exclusively by HfI.
Furthermore, FITA’s monitoring requirements, which stringently limit the association’s remit, were written into the present service level agreement at HfI’s insistence.
We also have two additional monitoring visits a year by HfI, and have always been required to supply independently-audited accounts to both HfI and Islington Council on demand as a prerequisite of FITA’s funding requirement. Additionally, HfI conducts regular monitoring visits to our offices by its dedicated finance personnel.
As part of FITA’s remit, we regularly send out information sheets outlining its activities and seek to actively act upon any proposals from its membership.
Notably, the directors are at present awaiting draft proposals from HfI in response to reviewing the current service level agreement – a development which FITA welcomes, since it will afford us the opportunity to improve as an organisation and develop better performance-monitoring indicators.
Regarding the “blurring” of development and administration of new tenants’ and residents’ associations, this unfortunately is seen as a direct consequence of HfI’s attempting to alter and increase the role of its service and community development officers, against the specific advice of FITA, which views this as a superfluous and costly exercise.
DR BRIAN POTTER
Chairman, Federation of Islington Tenants’ Association |
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