The Ham&High’s coverage of Haringey Council’s property transactions raises many worries. It seems that a lot of money has been lost and that the way several transactions were handled are at best “iffy”.
One of the key findings of the investigation (commissioned by Haringey and discussed by its cabinet in April) is that, in advance of the doomed Haringey Development Vehicle (HDV), Haringey’s property team had been run down as some functions were intended to be handed over to developer Lendlease and the HDV.
Experienced officers left, key governance systems were diluted and corporate memory lost.
April’s cabinet also discussed Haringey Housing. In June 2022, Homes for Haringey was brought back in-house, supposedly to improve failing services and repair the council’s relationship with tenants and leaseholders.
The agenda item offered more uncomfortable reading. The lead member wrote: “Following the insourcing we actively sought external views on the performance of our housing services, and the results are sobering.” As a result, Haringey has referred itself to the Housing Regulator.
But, for long-suffering residents who have been trying to report urgent repairs, broken lifts, safety worries, littering and lack of response when trying to contact officers, none of this was new.
In 2022, Haringey commissioned a survey to provide a “benchmark for improvement”. The results were unveiled at a series of focus groups a few weeks ago and are jaw-dropping.
Separate responses for tenants and leaseholders were collected and compared with results from two other London authorities.
Asked how happy people were with Haringey housing services, 45% of tenants said they were, but only 18% of leaseholders. This compares with 72.6% of happy bunnies in other boroughs.
Asked how well Haringey Housing listens, the response was devastating – 37% and 9%, compared to 56.6%.
I’m a Haringey leaseholder and the impact on my mental health when trying to engage with Haringey and its contractors has been grim – stress, anxiety and lost sleep. Despite involving MP Catherine West and councillors, it has been impossible to get answers to straight questions: record keeping is shambolic and they seem unable to account for service charges.
Haringey must investigate how the service got into such a shocking state and establish whether the bitter internal row over the ldevelopment vehicle led to a drop in customer service standards.
Meanwhile, a heartfelt and open-handed personal apology from the leader of the council would be welcome.
David Winskill is a Crouch End resident and local campaigner.
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