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Sanctuary residents respond with open letter after Dispatches programme
A Sanctuary residents’ group has responded with an open letter to the organisation, criticising its chief executive for not making reference to the “very real human suffering” featured in the programme.
Sanctuary was last month featured in a Dispatches documentary on Channel 4, which highlighted a number of cases of apparent poor service, including one family who claimed that their baby son’s health has been impacted by poor housing conditions.
The association responded with a statement from Craig Moule, its chief executive, which said “we know this is not an accurate reflection of these cases or our wider services”.
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In a letter sent to Inside Housing, members of a Facebook group of Sanctuary residents, which includes some of those featured in the programme, hit back.
They said: “In his comment, he failed to make a single reference to the evidence of very real human suffering caused by Sanctuary Housing. His response to the allegation made on the Channel 4 Dispatches programme that Sanctuary may have played a part in both the death of a pensioner and the development of a severe respiratory condition in a baby? ‘When anyone calls our values into question, it hurts.’ Mr Moule, this is about people’s lives.”
The letter is published below.
The Regulator of Social Housing is investigating some of the cases, which were referred to it by Sanctuary.
A spokesperson for the RSH told Inside Housing last month that it is "already considering" cases referred to in the programme but could not comment further due to it being a current case.
Sanctuary said at the time that it had been through the identifiable cases in exhaustive detail, sharing all of the information with the regulator for review".
A spokesperson for Sanctuary Group said: “The letter is from a private Facebook group so we are unable to see what content is being posted on it. We’d welcome being part of the group so we can see the issues people are raising and put them right. We would always encourage anyone who has a concern to contact us directly.
“We understand the strength of feeling from some residents who feel we’ve fallen short and we want to work together with them to shape our services and the homes we provide.”
Sanctuary residents’ open letter
We are a group of over 2,100 tenants and others whose lives have been seriously impacted by the practices of Sanctuary Housing Association.
Following the recent Dispatches programme, Mr Moule shows an astonishing inability to grasp the gravity of the situation. He wrote: “I’d been in post as Sanctuary’s group chief executive for a month when we found out the programme was being made. Like anyone would, I felt shocked and concerned. Had we let people down?”
The short and polite answer is yes. Having been near the top of Sanctuary for many years (as chief finance officer) Craig Moule surely knows exactly what has been going on. Whether this is the case or not, he appears to be in denial. He is also, of course, on around £350,000 per year.
In his comment, he failed to make a single reference to the evidence of very real human suffering caused by Sanctuary Housing. His response to the allegation made on the Channel 4 Dispatches programme that Sanctuary may have played a part in both the death of a pensioner and the development of a severe respiratory condition in a baby? “When anyone calls our values into question, it hurts.” Mr Moule, this is about people’s lives.
He goes on to attempt to discredit the programme makers. “It struck us how little the programme makers knew about how housing associations work. It also struck us that they seemed to misunderstand our purpose.”
Yet Mr Moule makes no effort to explain what he means by this, let alone present any evidence to support his view. Unfortunately, most of us in the Facebook group can immediately recognise this style of communication from Sanctuary Housing. Such are the tactics of “one of the UK’s leading social landlords”, as Sanctuary describe themselves.
As a group with over 2,000 members, we can tell you that the kind of Sanctuary problems reported in Dispatches – while not being universal – are widespread enough across Sanctuary’s homes. We have been reporting them to Sanctuary, MPs, the housing regulator and others for many years.
If anyone is in any doubt that we are exaggerating how bad things are, please get in touch with us. Alternatively, please read the hundreds of freely available first-hand accounts (from both Sanctuary tenants and staff) on internet blogs and review sites.
The National Housing Federation has said that the Dispatches programme did not reflect most people’s experience of living in housing association properties. That may be true. However, anyone interested might want to have a look at almost identical Facebook groups run by tenants from other large housing groups. Please get in touch with us if you are interested in them.
This is about people’s lives. Thank you for listening.
