Tenants ballot

8576126 Sat Mar 06, 2010 4:42 am

Firstly may I congratulate the four residents groups to date. The anti sell off campaign will have taken the crown estate aback. They would have been banking on a similar rough but manageable ride as that which Paul Clark had with the church commissioners. The quality of the press campaign, the newsletters and website has put them onto the back foot.

Clark and bright's nightmare scenario is to be forced to accept a ballot of tenants. They know that they will almost certainly lose a vote of that kind. The craso campaign must use all of it's skill to press for such a ballot. Everything could turn on it's outcome. Frank dobson is an excellent political operator and if this ballot (with the equirement that the crownhas to abide by the result of course) then victory for residents can be achieved, then victory will be at hand.

Roger bright was humiliated at the treasury sub commitee. He will now be pulling out all the stops to see this sale through now. He will use everything at his disposal to proceed with sale without a vote. £250m rides on it. Good luck to the craso campaign - the pre election period is your best chance of winning a residents ballot. You MUST succeed or go the same way as the church homes.

ih8thece Wed Mar 17, 2010 7:20 pm

Yes, very well done on the organisation of tenants and everyone who had put in the time and effort to assist coordinating and informing tenants and Thank you for the report about witnessing that meeting.

Has anyone considered what the attitude of the management will be after being forced to remain landlords?

The deteriorated management culture, internal fraud and bullying that has gone on in recent years was symptomatic of disproportionate power that has increased with the general shortage of (affordable) housing supply. Plus the 2004 Rent Act (intro. of shorthold tenancies designed to protect small landlords).

I hope politicians will stay watching CEC operations; consider private tenants’ rights, and investigate the corporation further. Their lack of transparency; internal fraud, bullying & generally sneaky practices like introducing shorthold tenancies; penalising tenants who wish to downsize... why does the Crown Estate get away with avoiding issuing monthly rent statements? No normal business keeps customers in the dark about their customer account details. No other national corporation gets away with such faked image management and monopoly.

I know that in the situation, the best tenants can do is to object to the sell off because of consequences with church estate sell off - some may believe that the having Crown Estate as landlords offers some genuine advantage... (maybe once upon a time?) - but am I the only one who wouldn't mind if the political climate changed to alter the status quo and the CEC were forced to hand over, not sell, ownership & management to local councils or other genuinely regulated, socially concsious HA ?
At least I wouldn't feel as if there was some privilege attached to being regarded by the establishment as inconvenient vermin, or an insurgent peasant for raising issues about tenancy rights.

Key workers contribute to society and pay rent - Judging by the repeated letters and meetings that the CE have publicised to dispense info about applying for [taxpayer funded] rent benefit, rent increases must already be exceeding many tenants' incomes in many homes. Or maybe this measure has been to prepare for the hikes with future buyers that we were not told of until now?
The paradox is that the local mangement has awlays stated with disdain that the CE subsidise our rent (& we are not worthy)

Tenants ballot

Tenants ballot

Re: Tenants ballot