Green Party Brighton gig coming up

The Tim Burness Band will be playing a short set in Brighton on Sunday 26th November at a Green Party benefit gig.

Big Green Party 2 takes place at Green Door Store, 2-4 Trafalgar Arches, underneath Brighton train station – a wide range of live music on the bill from 2pm to 10.30pm.

We will be on at 6.20pm – shortly before MP Caroline Lucas.

Sanctuary Housing – ceilings fall in and nobody cares

Ceiling collapses after two weeks in new Sanctuary house, late 2017

“I was heavily pregnant… had to be the worst thing to happen to me..”

“Sanctuary Housing – UK Leading Provider of Affordable and Social Housing”

A tax-exempt housing group making £40-50 million per year, fully supported by the government.

See earlier blogs A nationwide scandal – Sanctuary Housing and Housing association complaints – no regulation of service quality!

Since the Grenfell Tower tragedy, there’s been increasing mutterings about the horrendous state of UK social housing but still no exposure of large, unregulated, (existing regulation is a bad joke) rip-off housing associations like Sanctuary.

COME ON MPs AND MEDIA PEOPLE, WHERE ARE YOU? Preoccupied with Brexit, all you MPs? (A few spoke out in a newspaper article earlier this year, no action since) Not sexy enough for you, mainstream journalists? (A few have scratched the surface this year, well done Channel 4 Dispatches on lack of regulation, full marks to John Harris for articles in The Guardian but why no follow-ups since?) WHAT ARE YOU ALL WAITING FOR, ANOTHER GRENFELL, OR SOMETHING SIMILAR? With current government policy, the problem is not going to go away. How much longer can you all ignore this?

August 2018 update: Social housing Green Paper published. Nice words, the government has to look like they’re doing something after the Grenfell tragedy. Unfortunately and predictably, absolutely nothing about the required large-scale building of genuinely affordable homes. Will the proposals in the paper lead to REAL ACTION TO STOP THE ROT with rogue social landlords like Sanctuary? There are massive systemic problems caused by, amongst other things, government neglect for many years. Incompetent and often diabolical treatment of vulnerable people, including the elderly and disabled, is common. Some recent media coverage of rip-off profit-driven housing associations – another Channel 4 Dispatches (Getting Rich from the Housing Crisis) featured Hyde Housing in July and there was a recent piece in the Observer featuring L&Q (London and Quadrant) – Raw sewage, no water – but service costs still rise for L&Q tenants

Two CBEs on the Sanctuary Group Board

Sanctuary Chief Executive, David Bennett. £356K CBE (retired in January 2019)

Chair of Group Housing Committee, Trudi Elliott, CBE

 

There are over 2000 people across several independent Sanctuary Housing facebook complaint groups. There are 1600 in the most active (and closed) group. Help and support for anyone struggling with this terrible company – Sanctuary Housing Independent Complaints Group – Countrywide

Hyde Housing is another staggeringly incompetent and corrupt housing group – nearly 1800 in the residents open facebook complaints group – Hyde Housing Independent Resident Group

More pictures of a collapsed ceiling recently posted in another fb group (one young woman and a 4 year old living in the home) this time for Riverside Housing Association – Riverside Housing Association / Evolve Complaints, Comments and Suggestions

Plenty of serious complaints on the Peabody housing association fb page too – Peabody

Social housing – particularly when owned by large housing associations – appears to be collapsing. Sometimes literally. These organizations are too big, too greedy and frequently inhuman. My summary of Sanctuary bad practice, from a 2014 previous blog of mine seems to cover most of it:-

And another…

1. Illegal and morally questionable practices.
2. Repairs being done very badly, or not at all.
3. Many properties in very bad condition, sometimes unfit for human habitation.
4. Complaints going missing and being ignored.
5. Blatant lying and dishonest manipulation of language in order to deflect complaints.
6. Bullying, harassment and bad treatment of tenants, including the elderly and disabled.
7. Inadequate soundproofing.
8. Bad communication and a lack of consultation with communities.
9. The lowering of service standards as a result of Sanctuary takeovers.
10. Bullying and mismanagement of Sanctuary’s own staff.

 

A small sample of recent Sanctuary complaints:-