Barnet Homes - the dream and the reality

9:38am Sunday 28th September 2008

Comments (2)   Have your say »

In a previous blog, I asked if someone from Barnet Homes could please explain to me what value the organisation adds. I asked what benefit we all received from having democratic control of the housing stock removed. Well it seems that no one from Barnet Homes has bothered to comment. I did however get a visit from one of the original directors (now resigned) who took the trouble to explain. Let me share the dream and the reality with you.

In my previous blog on this subject I mentioned the old adage "pay peanuts get monkeys". In some ways, I was unfair applying this to the tenant's who make up the board of Barnet Homes. They do have a direct vested interest in making the organisation work. There is a rich, long history of working people doing all sorts of excellent volountary work for free. They do this out of a sense of community mindedness. I have only praise for anyone who gives their time for the community. It just seems unfortunate to me that sometimes, in cases such as Barnet Homes, in my opinion people such as these are used to give a veneer of respectability. When criticism is raised about the lack of accountability, we get "what about the tenant directors".

I happen to know one of the original directors quite well and they came to see me to put me right about the organisation in my shop yesterday. They explained that Barnet Homes was set up as an "Arms Length Organisation" to oversee the regeneration of the Barnet Council House stock. This was done to secure a grant of over £90 Million for the renovations. Why wasn't this just given to the council I asked? Because if the Government had given it to the council, they couldn't guarantee that it would be spent on the renovations. As Barnet Homes is an organisation purely dedicated to maintenance of the housing stock, the cash has to be spent on the purpose it was intended.

Now to my mind this is extremely wasteful. Barnet Council has a Human resources department, a legal department, a finance department, a media relations department. In setting up Barnet Homes, all of these functions have to be duplicated. For what? so the government can be sure that the money isn't wasted on "pet projects". This is total nonsense. The Government has to check that Barnet Homes aren't wasting it, they could easily have ring fenced the cash and passed legislation to ensure that it was spent on the correct projects. Council's get all sorts of grants etc for specific projects. Why is this so different? If it hadn't been spent correctly, the residents would soon be onto their local councillors to tell them.

We had a very long conversation. One thing I have learned is that the original tenant directors took their role very seriously. They were very much on top of the brief. It seems that their tenure was limited, so now other directors are in place. They weren't around when the original agreement was made. They weren't there as the detail was argued over, so they have an uphill struggle to ensure the founding principles are adhered to.

So how has it worked out. Well as I explained in my previous blog on the subject, five of the ten standards they measure themselves against, they are failing in. I heard yesterday of a whole catalog of shoddy work. The poor unfortunate tenants are told that this is what was agreed. It is only when one of the original directors checks, that the truth comes out.

So I asked my friend, how did the refurbishment go on their property. "Oh now there's a story". It seems that one of the founding principles was that every home would get a new kitchen and bathroom. So how did that go? "Well they came around and said they wanted to schedule the work to fit the new kitchen". What about the bathroom, I asked? "Oh they told me they've run out of cash for bathrooms, so that is now off the agenda". Now my friend is not one to let them get away with this, so it will not be let rest.

I asked my friend if I could quote them on this. "Oh no, I am still a tenant. I know what happens if you go on record against them". It seems rather sad to me that someone who has put so much energy into trying to make their estate better has ended up in this situation.

As I said before, I'd love someone from Barnet Homes to come and speak to me on record. As I asked before, please tell me what value the organisation adds. I now have another question. Is it true that the "regeneration" has been downgraded to remove the requirement for a new bathroom?

I'm thinking of doing a Barnet Homes special blog soon. As we can now put pictures on our blogs, I am in the process of getting some rather nice ones of some refurbishments. You'll be amazed when you see the fine quality of work that some of our local tenants have the joy of looking at. It is so good that it could almost be described as modern art, rather than renovation !!!!

Watch this space ....