WHEEZE OF THE WEEK Not since 2012, when Brighton & Hove Albion put 3 into their own net playing away to Liverpool, has a team scored as many own goals as Circle Housing did this week. And not since Del Boy fell through an open bar hatch leaving Trigger befuddled, have we laughed as hard. In Thursdays edition, the Wimbledon Guardian interviewed Circle Housing’s ‘Director of Regeneration’ – A most peculiar job title, given that we were never consulted about or have agreed to the regeneration that he is directing against us. The PR piece should have been a propaganda gift but it backfired spectacularly. A hat-trick of own goals, no less. Own Goal Number 1: “WE WON’T MAKE A PROFIT” (seriously, don’t laugh. They really said that!) In 2010 Circle Housing ‘bought’ almost 9000 Merton Council properties (6326 tenanted residences and 2535 leasehold homes) for £1.2 million. In other words they paid about £135 per property! Nope, no profit there then. But that’s not even the joke. How much more did Circle Housing pay on top of that £1.2 million for the communal areas, gardens and land around our estate? The Answer: nothing! Not a penny. It’s called ‘curtilage’ and it was part of the £1.2 million (or £135 per house/flat, if you prefer) deal. And now poor old, hard up Circle Housing will build 1,200 additional houses (not one of them will be for social housing) on land they basically got for free. The additional new builds will be to sold or privately rented at full market value. Yes, Circle Housing are right. They “won’t make a penny” they will make an absolute killing! Own Goal Number 2 “SOCIAL HOUSING TENANTS VOTED ON THE TRANSFER” Rather like Basil Fawlty imploring the Major and his staff not to mention the war in front of the German guests, Circle Housing must have had a collective nervous breakdown when they saw the ‘Fact Box’ at the end of the piece. “Social housing tenants voted on the transfer” . Opps. Clearly willing “Don’t mention the vote” didn’t work. In June 2009 a vote was organized by the then Conservative Merton Council for the transfer of Council Housing Stock to the Circle Housing front group, Merton Priory Homes. The vote was not open to everyone. There was only one vote per household (not per person)and crucially, those who had bought their ex-council houses freehold were not permitted to have a vote even though it concerned who would carry out the estate management function and to whom the service charge would be paid. On the Eastfields Estate, 46% of all homes are owner occupied (but that figure shoots up in the Town Houses where a whopping 78% of homes are owned by Freeholders). They were all barred from voting. A further disenfranchised group were those who rented from private landlords and other Registered Social Landlords such as L&Q. Of those eligible to vote in the gerrymandered ballot, only 60% across the borough bothered to. Of them, 54% voted in favour of the stock transfer. Applied to Eastfields, and taking into account all of the households that were prevented from voting, it means less than 20% of homes voted in favour of Circle Housing taking over our community. In other words more than 80% of households didn’t vote for Circle Housings invasion of our lives. Own Goal Number 3: “HOMEOWNERS WON’T BE FORCED OUT” (eye wateringly funny, right?) Unlike the public school fat cats who sit atop the Circle Housing gravy train with £250,000 a year salaries, we work for a living. Our lunches don’t usually include foie gras, and 2002 Dom Perignon Rose rarely passes our lips. For us, the doubling of our mortgages or rents isn’t something we can cope with. We can’t afford it. It’s called social cleansing. It means we are forced out. Kinda the complete opposite of what they said really. THANK YOU CIRCLE HOUSING ‘How to loose friends and alienate people’ should have been the title of the piece in the Guardian. Gifted a simple interview, Circle Housing made a mess par excellence. The Germans have a word, ‘schadenfreude’, which means to derive pleasure at others misfortune. It’s been a while since we laughed so much at so many own goals and it has been five months since as many of our neighbours joined ERA in a single day. Thank you Circle Housing! Carlsberg don’t do PR disasters but if they did… yourlocalguardian.co.uk/news/local/wimbledonnews/11555528.Regeneration_boss_says_housing_association__won_t_make_a_penny__from_proposed_redevelopment___as_he_admits_most_new_builds_will_be_for_private_rent/
Posted on: Sat, 25 Oct 2014 07:41:13 +0000
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