Auditors slam "no star service" at Island Homes
Housing association Island Homes has been given no stars following an investigation by auditors.
The group, which manages nearly 2,100 homes on the Isle of Dogs, has been told it is providing a "poor, no star service" in an Audit Commission report to be published on Thursday.
The commission investigated Island Homes in July, two months after it sparked resident protests by sacking its entire board.
Island Homes was given control of homes in the Barkantine, Samuda, St John's and Millwall estates by Tower Hamlets Council in December 2005, but the council is already monitoring its performance after raising concerns that "promises made to residents...have not been implemented".
Residents were furious when parent company One Housing Group fired the group's 15-strong board in April, citing "persistent serious failures in its duties". Many tenants believe they have been marginalised by the dismissal of the board, which contained eight residents and seven co-opted experts.
Barkantine resident Lynda Keen said: "The services are just not there anymore and the lack of consultation is astounding. No one's asked the residents what they want at all.
"If I had my way, I'd like to see people out there protesting with placards every day, because every day something new seems to happen."
One Housing Group has highlighted the report's comment that there are "promising prospects for improvement". It claims this comment stems from its move to sack the previous board, and to invest £250,000 in seconding staff to Island Homes to tackle areas of weakness.
Mick Sweeney, chief executive of One Housing Group, said: �Achieving "promising prospects" after such a short period of time is concrete evidence of OHG’s determination and commitment to delivering change and improvement at Island Homes.
"The report’s “poor service� judgement fully justifies the steps OHG has taken in recent months to improve governance and service quality for Island Homes residents.
“The report’s recommendations have been incorporated into our improvement plan for Island Homes and we are confident that these will be achieved within the timescales set down by the Audit Commission.�
An interim board is currently in place, and One Housing has stated that it will remain until residents, staff, and current board members believe sufficient improvement has occurred. But Millwall councillor Shirley Houghton is joining locals in demanding more communication from the new regime.
She said: "OHG is systematically destroying the residents associations that have been set up. I don't see how it can improve services when it is refusing to listen to residents.
"Having tried to deal with it since it took over, I have no faith that it will make any improvements at all."
Sounds like a mess to me. Poor service to the residents. However, it looks like that things are going to get better.
Garfieldqd One and Zero are both aware better than Jon that if you kill all the bees the world comes to an end in 4 mins.