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Islington Tribune - by MARK BLUNDEN
Published: 13 July 2007

‘Exorbitant’ home repair bills probed

Leaseholders survey questioned

A MAJOR investigation has begun into the quality of workmanship provided by contractors renovating Islington’s council housing.
The inquiry comes as Homes for Islington (HfI), which manages the borough’s housing, claims most leaseholders – residents who have bought former council homes – are happy with the service they receive.
A survey for HfI found that “70 per cent of leaseholders were very or fairly satisfied” and “72 per cent thought the speed of the work done by constructors was good or fair”.
But the organisation surveyed 875 leaseholders when there are about 11,000 in the borough.
Islington Leaseholders Forum said the survey, undertaken by Kwest Research, is unrepresentative. It claims it has been inundated with complaints about cost and service.
Last Monday night, leaseholders forum chairman Brian Potter presented a bundle of complaint letters to the Town Hall’s performance review committee, which is to carry out the inquiry.
In a printed email, John Wicher, chairman of Andover Estate Leaseholders Association, called the charges faced by homeowners “exorbitant”.
Labour councillor Paul Convery, chairman of the performance review committee, said: “We’ve had great numbers of leaseholders screaming about shockingly bad standards of workmanship and excessively high bills. There is a serious value-for-money problem.”
As part of the inquiry, the committee, made up of Labour and Lib Dem councillors, will visit estates and other boroughs.
The investigation is expected to take several months. Its findings will be presented to the council’s executive.
An HfI spokeswoman said: “We closely address residents’ concerns relating to any statistics we publish and openly welcome residents’ feedback. We will be looking into the findings of this particular survey in greater detail and will respond accordingly.”

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