Scrapping Enfield Homes not the answer to problems, says MP David Burrowes

5:27pm Thursday 28th June 2012 in News Photograph of the Author By David Hardiman, Reporter

David Burrowes said problems were worse when he was a parliamentary candidate in 2005. David Burrowes said problems were worse when he was a parliamentary candidate in 2005.

An Enfield MP says he is “very sceptical” about whether scrapping the body which manages council homes in the borough would improve standards.

Enfield Southgate MP David Burrowes said although he had been “very critical” of Enfield Homes – an ‘arms length management organisation’ (ALMO) set up in 2008 to manage 16,600 council homes and improve them – it was management that was the problem.

His comments come days after the Enfield Independent revealed the latest tenant to be living with mould and water problems. Francesca Ahmadi, 54, said living in her Oxford Gardens flat had become “a nightmare” because of the two-year problem spreading across walls and furniture.

Local councillor Glynis Vince has since intervened to take up Miss Ahmadi’s case with Enfield Homes.

Mr Burrowes, who has previously complained about the treatment of tenants in the Ladderswood Estate in New Southgate who have regularly been left without heating or hot water, said Enfield Homes did need improvement.

He added: “I have been critical of Enfield Homes’ performance in the past, especially in places like Ladderswood where people haven’t been given the service they expect and have been left in uninhabitable conditions.

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“But I have a long memory and I remember when I was a candidate and a councillor and the problems that we had then that were worse than now.

“The problem is not necessary the ALMO, it’s how it’s being run – funds are tight at the council and with other competing priorities we could end up in an even worse situation.”

Enfield Council is currently running a consultation on whether to abolish the body and bring homes back under council control, with a decision to be taken next month.

Enfield has the second-highest proportion of homes that do not meet the Government’s Decent Homes criteria in the UK, having entered the programme later than most other local authorities.

Winchmore Hill councillor Martin Prescott said Enfield Homes needed to remember that each statistic was “a person or a family living in hell or real difficulty”.

He added: “It’s just not acceptable and they need to pull their finger out.

“My gut feeling is that the ALMO was a good idea and it was done to bring in finance, but I’ve been less than overwhelmed with the management of it.”

The deadline to return questionnaires about whether to abolish Enfield Homes passed yesterday, with market research firm Kwest set to analyse the results and give feedback to the council.

Comments(2)

Seton During says...
9:54am Fri 29 Jun 12

It is bad enough that the economic and terotechnological management are inexemplary, and, worse, it continues to be clear that Enfield Council currently lacks the strategic management expertise and leadership qualities for essential rectifications and improvements - if and when they take over or not. A tragedy for Enfield Council Tenants and British Taxpayers.
Seton During - Ex LB of Enfield Councillor & Member of Housing Committee

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paulinebradford says...
6:51pm Wed 4 Jul 12

The lady who is named as the latest person to be living with damp, mould and water problems,i sympathise but my daughter has been living with these problems for longer than two years.Her windows should have been replaced years ago.old metal frames,to lock them you have to use an allen key,which dont always work.she has been broken into because of this,she has been told that they stopped using these windows years ago.get on with it enfield homes.she has lived in her flat for 13years.she has no security thanks to the gate at the side which was installed so that the grass and area at the back of her garden can be maintained,but in doing that they pull up the grass in her garden,and has even been told that although she has the key that she should have to put up with people cutting through,so she wouldnt have any privacy at all,dont think so.the estate manager is out of touch and needs to be replaced with somebody who can do the job.mr burrows do something about it.she has had enough that in all the time she has been there she is the only one who has decorated it.

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