Telford & Wrekin Council Watch - Housing Summit

Housing Summit - Together we can do it

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Written by John Franklyn

Saturday, 23 August 2008

Social Housing is back on the agenda

The last month for TCW has seen some successes on the Housing front and it has certainly caused us some trouble as well. As TCW shareholders will know a certain bunch of toe rags have been causing me and my family some trouble because of the help we have offered and the positive results we have gained. So I for one am very well versed in the problems of Social Housing.

In approximately 18 months, since the introduction of Choose Your Home, the housing waiting list has increased from 5,000 to 11,000. Salford, an inner City area of Manchester went from 5000 to 11000 in 5 years, this gives a clear indication of just how poor the performance of Telfords Choose Your home actually is.

TCW are contacted regularly on the issue of Social Housing and in the last week we have received 100 telephone calls on this topic alone.

As those registered will know, the CYH has three bands,

Urgent

Wanting

Needing

Residents registered in the ”needing” band could be alarmed to know that, any house that appears in the all bands section will go to those registered in the “Urgent” band first, thus negating the need for the “needing” band and keeping those in the lowest priority down.

The source of this information is from a member of the WHT Staff.

Disabled residents themselves face a harder battle in the fact that the Wrekin Housing Trust will not adapt a property for a disabled person. Again, the same member of staff said,

“We will not adapt because the house will not be fit for general purpose”

Yet adaption’s may simply be

Stair lift

Hand grips by doors

Perching stools

All of which are easily removed and often already owned by many disabled residents.

I must question, why do the Wrekin Housing Trust see fit to move able bodied people into homes that are already at least partially adapted for disabled people, but these adaption’s are often a permanent adaption including concrete wheel chair ramps.

Case In point that displays the Wrekin housing Trust discriminate against disabled residents.

In the 20^th October 2004 a disabled resident was to move into a Wrekin Housing Trust Property, a member of the Wrekin Housing Executive wrote to the resident saying,

Further to your recent request, to exchange unfortunately I am not able to approve your request. This is due to the property in ######### not being adapted for the requirements of ###########.

We are sorry that this request has not been successful but we wish you luck in the future.

Yours Sincerely

# # # # # # #

Housing Executive

The relevant residents appealed against this decision which was SUCCESSFUL as the appeal decided the move into the property would be allowed as the Wrekin Housing trust could be seen to be in breach of the Disability Discrimination Act.

The appeal took less than a month to over turn and is certainly something the WHT might like to keep quiet. I would suggest that this decision has now set a precedence in favour of the Disabled Resident.

During this appeal and relevant telephone calls, the residents were informed that the WHT had housed disabled residents, only to find they then asked for adaptions which proved expensive for the trust and this was part of the reason why they did not give them a priority. It is clear that this policy is still very alive almost 4 years later.

MP DAVID WRIGHT – how can you hold your head up, you should be down right ashamed of yourself.

In 2006 when the waiting list was at only 5000, he said he would arrange a housing summit. Now the waiting list is at 11,000, he has FAILED to keep his word.

As you have failed MP David Wright, I will arrange a Housing Summit, to the best of my ability and I will accept help from anyone that wants to genuinely offer it.

I would now like to hear from all residents who are experiencing difficulties with the Wrekin Housing Trust or Social housing in general.

It doesn’t matter if you are young, old, able bodied, disabled a resident in Social Housing or wanting to be a resident.

One thing is certain,

DOING NOTHING IS NOT AN OPTION

MP David Wright doesn’t want to be your voice, so we will be our own.

Contact John Franklyn

Email – This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Phone – 01952 676990

Mobile – 07856 572936

This is not just about now, tomorrow or next week, this is about getting Social housing sorted for future generations, our children, our grandchildren and beyond.

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3.20 Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."