Social landlords in Herefordshire rapped as unresponsive

Social landlords responsible for hundreds of properties in Herefordshire have come under fire for not being responsive to residents’ concerns.

“The model we have in this county is a disgrace,” Coun Terry James, leader of the county’s Liberal Democrats, told a meeting of councillors last Friday.

“Some housing associations do a reasonable job, some do a terrible job and have become self-serving, unaccountable quangos,” he said. “One has three directors on salaries above £300,000.”

Yet when something goes wrong, “we get the blame”, he said. “The council needs to be part of the answer.”

His LibDem colleague Coun Kevin Tillett agreed, saying his Hinton and Hunderton city ward “is basically two ex-council estates” which was passed to a housing group 20 years ago, “yet people still blame us”.

“I approach mainly Connexus for updates, but I cannot insist or demand, however urgent or appalling the situation for residents may be,” he said.

“We need to get that connection back, so we can do something effective and quick.”

Council leader Jonathan Lester said he had “had similar issues with landlords”, adding: “No one would disagree that we have to get better, more affordable housing for our residents.”

The debate arose from a motion brought by LibDem councillor Rob Owens, which the meeting backed, calling for the council to “directly deliver… safe, secure, affordable homes for local people”.

He said private-sector builders in the county “have not delivered enough housing of the kinds that are desperately needed”.

His group were “deeply concerned” that £19.7 million for strategic housing in the county had been taken out of the council’s four-year capital programme, he said – even though they had just helped pass this earlier in the same meeting.

Green group leader Coun Ellie Chowns said the previous administration, of which the Greens were part, “already had plans, budgets and staff in place” to address the county’s affordable housing problem.

And cabinet member Coun Carole Gandy, former leader of Redditch borough council, a large social landlord, said Coun Owens’ proposal was “pie-in-the-sky”, and would leave the council liable for upkeep of homes.

“The difficulty is a lack of trust in our social landlords,” she said. “We should say to them, ‘what you’re doing is not good enough and we need to improve our relationship with you’.”

But council chairperson Coun Roger Phillips praised social landlord Stonewater’s new development of 38 “sustainable and affordable” new homes at Ewyas Harold as “an excellent example of well laid-out, good quality homes”.