Thursday, September 29, 2005

Arms length housing management

"Arms Length" housing management.

O.K. ...so the story in the link above is about one man's fury at the high salaried jobs being recruited for South Tyneside Council's "arms length" management company which it wishes to set up to manage it's housing stock. Let's not get too upset at that at the moment, despite the massive budget overspend, these salaries and jobs were budgeted and planned for and the policy approved, and if you want to ensure that the scheme is a flop then give the jobs to inexperienced people who are prepared to work for half the price.

On the same subject of housing management, before we decide to jump in with both feet, it's worth looking at the "efforts" being made by our neighbours in Sunderland. Here is a piece all about the failings of Sunderland Housing Group, there are some lengthy articles and it makes sharp, eye opening, thought provoking, and sometimes shocking reading - read on here.

It is worth pointing out that the owners of the Dad's Place website (in my opinion) probably have a cross to bear, a chip on the shoulder, an axe to grind, and it shines throughout the writing. However, and just as important, some one (or more than one) is/are quite prepared to keep supplying the website with valuable information. It appears that a lot of people are quite unhappy about the operations of the Sunderland Housing Group, unhappy to the extent that they are prepared to do something about it.

It is worth our Councillors taking a couple of hours to read through the piece above, we certainly don't want any of the same mistakes repeated here!

# posted by Curly : 10:04 pm