Council mulls move away from ALMO
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A London council is looking at transferring its homes from an arm’s-length management organisation to increase investment in its stock.
Kensington & Chelsea Council is considering transferring its 10,000 homes from its tenant management organisation to a housing association.
The move follows Salford Council’s transfer of nearly 15,000 homes to new housing association City West Housing Trust last month.
Inside Housing revealed last year that Salford was to become the first council in the country to transfer its homes from a failing ALMO to a housing association (7 September 2007).
But that transfer took place following a critical Audit Commission report of the ALMO, New Prospect Housing.
If Kensington & Chelsea did proceed with a transfer it would be the first in the country to do so from a successful ALMO.
Inside Housing understands a number of other councils are also looking to transfer stock from ALMOs.
Stockton Council said its homes needed £600 million of investment over the next 30 years and transfer ‘currently appears to have a great deal to offer’.
A spokesperson for Kensington & Chelsea said: ‘We will be consulting with residents in the New Year about how each of these [options] could work before we make a decision.’
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Robert Hertner | 15/11/2008 2:54 pm
Welcome To: Mugabeland?
By Robert Hertner
(Emailto: tvlvictims@hotmail.com)
Chair: Holmefield Residents Association
Vice-Chair: Kensal New Town Area Review Board
Timeline. From: Tenant Management Organisation in profit, to Arms Length Management Organisation torment and debt, to Housing Association hell …
What on earth is the RBK&C TMO (Tenant Management Organisation) Board/Mgt up to? What is their ultimate agenda for creating so much division and frixion between themselves and the TMO residents / electorate? Why and how have their ‘grand plans or vision’ fostered such acrimony? Is it, Divide and Rule?
TMO Board/Mgt REJECTED and ANGRY!
In Nov. ’07 the TMO Board/Mgt, at the Annual General Meeting, lost the vote on two proposals to downsize the Area Review Boards that would have reduced the resident member’s representatives presence on the TMO Board.
MUGABELAND DEMOCRACY – TMO MEMBERS RAILROADED.
In Jan. '08 a Member's Petition for a Vote of No Confidence of the TMO Board/Mgt was refused out-of-hand. Then the TMO Board/Mgt arranged their own EGM 60 days later, backed by Cllr Cockell, to oust two elected TMO Board members who asked awkward questions about finances and other serious items, cruelly stripping them of the TMO Board seats AND their memberships … over concocted ‘issues’.
This was little more than a kangaroo court, going so far as to REJECT ballots whereon legitimate members could not remember their membership numbers on the ballots, which is anything but ‘secret balloting’, resulting in a pyrrhic victory in exposing the desperation of the TMO Board/Mgt efforts to maintain unfettered control.
The Board/Mgt claimed a 9 to 1 'victory' in an unconstitutionally imposed and unverified 'postal ballot' that was never ratified by the TMO members. Then it was revealed that the membership records had not been updated since last century and, conveniently, no one has been allowed to inspect the ballots since. Imagine that.
TMO MEMBERS DICTATED TO …
So – in May '08, the RBK&C council and TMO Board via Cllr Cockell and Juliet Rawlings announced the suspension of the TMO’s Modular Management Agreement (not the TMO’s constitution) and the TMO Board/Mgt conveniently failed to call the annual TMO Board elections in May, June, July or August as constitutionally required.
TMO MEMBERS RAILROADED AGAIN …
The members EGM of 14 August to oust Ms. Rawlings and Messer Beverly, by using the imposed unconstitutional ‘postal ballot’ system, was ‘won’ by the TMO Board/Mgt, once again endorsed by Cllr Cockell. Though the council was ‘in charge’ of counting the ballots, the TMO Board/Mgt was still in charge of the membership/voting list, so the TMO Board/Mgt’s so-called ‘majority’ was reduced to about 2 to 1 and, as usual, the ballots have yet to be examined independently.
TMO MEMBERS DICTATED TO, AGAIN …
By the end of August, by failing to call the annual TMO Board elections, the TMO Board ceased to exist but decided to carry on ‘if quorate’ and have since held at least two monthly TMO Part A (public) and Bart B (secret) Board meetings using TMO contracted personnel and monies extracted from the TMO’s Housing Revenue Accounts plus finance un-authorised ballots and associated propaganda, in clear breach of the TMO constitution withbout authority. So what else is new?
TMO MEMBERS DICTATED TO, MORE …
Since then – the TMO Board/Mgt, without authority and on just 24 hours notice on 10 November ‘08, decided to cancel the AGMs of the Area Review Board (ARB) elections of their Chairs. This was done to eliminate all resident member ELECTORS – along with a previous blanket decree that Resident’s Associations must have 15 members to be ‘quorate’ (even though some Resident Associations have a dozen-odd homes in their association) which effectively destroyed the TMO’s Resident Associations and, now the ARBs.
TMO MEMBERS DICTATED TO and RAILROADED …
Now the TMO, with no authority whatsoever, has decided to alter the TMO constitution with another unapproved Postal Ballot, conveniently suspending the required Nov. Annual General Meeting and replacing it with a “General Meeting” wherein “No other business may be raised or considered”. The ballot and meeting will either accept or reject ALL of the proposed constitutional changes. This, the 3rd unlawful ‘postal ballot’, never approved by the TMO members, has been endorsed by both Cllr Cockell (Tory) and Cllr Cunningham (Labour).
Isn’t it odd how the right wing and the left wing fly in the same direction when it comes to suppressing the rights of the people? The TMO Board/Mgt (and Cllrs, now) call this ‘democracy’? The TMO members call it dictatorship.
Yes. Welcome to Mugabeland-style ‘democracy, he would be proud.
The reason this was all orchestrated by the TMO Board/Mgt since conversion to an ALMO in 2002. NB: The ALMO(complete with Performance Related Pay and Bonuses in a NON-PROFIT ORG) was forced on the TMO with subterfuge and guile, with neither debate nor informed consent of the members or residents. The ALMO then wasted, lost and/or stole £40-odd millions in ‘grants’, touted as free, but were actually loans – leaving the formerly in-profit TMO tens of millions of pounds in debt.
SO – “Council mulls move away from ALMO”. Surprise! Surprise! NOT! http://www.insidehousing.co.uk/story.aspx?storycode=6501858
OF COURSE! An AMLO cannot sell property held in the public trust, but Housing Associations can!
The ultimate goal is revealed: To convert/ transfer the RBK&C TMO into PRIVATISED Housing Associations, then redevelop the 10,000 TMO properties at will with private partners. This is being called “STOCK OPTIONS” NOT consultation but DICTATION – again. Stock Options? Cute and complete with Performance Related Pay, Bonuses and no more ‘housing repairs’ because they cost money? Peter Rachman would be proud too.
WORST TO COME ...
This is a nightmarish re-run of the infamous ‘Votes For Homes scandal’ … on steroids. Expect the Tory council’s new PARTNERS to seize leaseholder’s properties and raze Labour wards to, as ever, change the voting demographics. Not very simple, but effective – if they can get away with it - again.
As ever, the Russian proverb “Set up a trough; the pigs well come”, applies but, ironically, all of their foolishness and ‘best laid plans’ now being forced and played to the bitter end; fly in the face of the greatest financial calamity in history.
If nothing else, we do live in interesting times.
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ratmo | 16/11/2008 9:31 pm
This website has more information about Kensington & Chelsea
http://www.ratmo.org.uk/
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