SOUTH TYNESIDE HOMES(LESS)

With a couple of minutes to spare I had a quick look at the Audit Commission report which has recently been completed on South Tyneside Homes (see my post from yesterday). An official summary of the findings does not paint the same picture as the Council’s own press release, or the plagiarised version which recently appeared in the Shields Gazette; in fact quite the opposite is true. Frankly, our local evening rag has let the Council and its executives live to fail another day. I am particularly disappointed in the paper for acting like an ex Russian communist paper and repeating what they have been spoon fed. The essential points are covered in the letter below which has been sent to the Gazette’s editor for publication. Do you think it will find its way onto the letters page? I suspect not, we can’t have the proletariat knowing too much now can we!

“LETTER FOR PUBLICATION

Dear Sir

SOUTH TYNESIDE HOMES: AUDIT INSPECTION GRADE 1 STAR

Your recent article covering South Tyneside Homes and its latest audit report grading of one star frankly let the Council and its executives of the hook. Whilst your article was reasonably extensive, it was nothing short of a rehash of a press release sent out by the Councils own department. Had you actually looked beyond what was put in front of you i.e. actually looked at the audit summary, you would have found that South Tyneside Homes was guilty of the following;

1. 60% of homes do not meet decent homes standards

2. South Tyneside Homes lacks detailed energy efficient and environmental strategies

3. There are to many emergency repairs

4. Performance on complaints is weak

5. Rent collection and arrears recovery is not effective

6. Leasehold management and sheltered housing services are weak

7. There is limited information on the unit cost and equality of individual services,
restricting South Tyneside Homes ability to compare with top performers and identify priorities to improve the equality and value for money of services.

All these points are direct quotes from the Audit Report. Whilst it does admittedly hope that things will improve over the next year, people living in South Tyneside owned homes are going to pay a heavy price for the organisation’s incompetence. As a result of this dreadful performance, the Council has lost out on a £167 million grant to improve the standard of homes in the Borough. Those people who attend local Community Area Forums will remember some very detailed and expensive presentations by South Tyneside Homes which detailed the programmes for the next few years for the company; essential to this was the grant of £167 million. These plans are now in tatters and nobody has accepted the responsibility. If the Home’s executives were part of Alan Sugars “The Apprentice” programme, they would be faced with the comment “you’re fired!”.

In the past I have found the Gazette’s coverage of local political concerns to be admirable and impartial. However, the article on this fiasco is nothing short of lazy and sloppy journalism. There was and still is a more important issue at stake here and that’s the need to ensure that our Council conducts its business effectively and efficiently. If reporters are merely going to rehash what the Council tell them, then hand over the publication of the paper to the mandarins in the Town Hall and be done with it.”