Peckham Rye Labour

I've mentioned my role as Chair of Southwark's Housing Scrutiny committee a couple of times on this blog. Since taking this on in May last year our biggest piece of work has been an investigation into the statistics used to measure performance in Southwark's housing repairs service. Sounds technical, remote and boring doesn't it? I will do my best to convince you otherwise. Back in July 2010, the committee had to decide which housing issues we wanted to look into. Councillors on the committee (from all parties) had just been through an election campaign in which we'd knocked on lots and lots of doors. Among Southwark's tenants, by far the biggest concern was the quality of the contracted-out repairs service. But there was a problem. All of the statistics used to measure the quality of the service showed not just good, but brilliant levels of performance. 99.9% of appointments made by contractors were kept. Satisfaction levels hovered around the 94% mark. 90%+ o...

Angela shows us the terrible state the council left her bathroom in - for 7 weeks! Gavin, Renata and I were horrified to find that council tenants in Rye Hill Park have been left without a bathroom for almost two months. James Finn , 71, Angela Harrington, 28 and Giulia Harrington, 59 have had to wash in bowls and in the kitchen sink after the council ripped out their bathroom but didn't seem in any rush to replace it! What we found was really upsetting, especially as James suffers from a heart problem and has difficulty getting around. For this very reason the council had proposed that they install a shower in the flat, yet seven weeks after ripping out the old bathroom the council still hadn't returned to finish the job. The council had also ignored all contact from James, Angela and Giulia. Once we'd brought this to the council's attention and got the story on the front page of Southwark News, miraculously the council decided they would sort this problem out. But i...

Gavin and I spent today delivering our local newsletters. The lead story is on housing and sets out Labour's action plan to tackle the terrible state of social housing following seven and a half years of neglect by the Lib Dems and Tories running Southwark Council. The council’s failure to improve social housing was singled out by the Audit Commission this week. Southwark is one of only two councils in London to receive a ‘red flag’ for its housing services, which means that housing problems are “not being tackled adequately” Yet the response from the Lib Dem Council Leader Nick Stanton was out of touch with reality - he has failed to acknowledge that the council has been reprimanded by the Audit Commission in any of his statements to the local press. We've picked up lots casework from Peckham Rye residents living in social housing in recent months but one sticks in mind as particularly upsetting. A few weeks ago I met a young man who had been housed by Southwark because he...

For some, it's difficult to quantify the human cost of a £700 million black hole in Southwark's budget for bringing council homes up to a decent standard. It sounds like a big number, but does it have much of an impact on real people's lives? Isn't this just a game of political claim and counter claim? For those unfortunate enought to be living in one of Southwark's 18,000 sub-standard homes, the impact is only too real. For those individuals and families it can mean a home which is cold, damp and without even the most basic of facilities. Southwark's Labour Councillors have recently published "No Way To Live", a document which attempts to put some pressure on the Liberal Administration which refuses to tackle this crisis through cross party co-operation. Take a look at just one of the examples given in the document: "In February 2008, a woman living with her three young children in Peckham reported to the council that her toilet ceiling leaked wi...