Free Night Out?

[Guest missvic]

From today's News Post Leader:

Homes group sets out aims

An organisation now in control of council homes in Wansbeck is to set out its aims for the next four years.

Wansbeck Homes took over the management of 5,297 council homes in the district of February 25 after 85 per cent of tenants voted in favour of change.

And tonight (Thursday) the newly created, not-for-profit registered socila landlord is holding a special event to mark it's official launch.

Junior housing minister Ian Wright MP will join officials from Wansbeck Homes at the event at Choppington Welfare Hall.

It is anticipated that the move will unlock increased funding and allow £80m to be invested in homes over the next 5 years.

Wansbeck Homes has pledged that by 2012 it will have:

* double glazed and fitted doors to at least 4,000 homes

* fitted up to 2,500 new kitchens and bathrooms with over bath showers

* install 2,500 new heating systems

Work is already underway to improve homes to standards higher than the Government decent homes standard and create safe, sustainable communities.

Do you think anyone could pop along?

[Hamburger Pimp]

Par-taay!

[Malcolm Robinson]

From today's News Post Leader:

Homes group sets out aims

An organisation now in control of council homes in Wansbeck is to set out its aims for the next four years.

Wansbeck Homes took over the management of 5,297 council homes in the district of February 25 after 85 per cent of tenants voted in favour of change.

And tonight (Thursday) the newly created, not-for-profit registered socila landlord is holding a special event to mark it's official launch.

Junior housing minister Ian Wright MP will join officials from Wansbeck Homes at the event at Choppington Welfare Hall.

It is anticipated that the move will unlock increased funding and allow £80m to be invested in homes over the next 5 years.

Wansbeck Homes has pledged that by 2012 it will have:

* double glazed and fitted doors to at least 4,000 homes

* fitted up to 2,500 new kitchens and bathrooms with over bath showers

* install 2,500 new heating systems

Work is already underway to improve homes to standards higher than the Government decent homes standard and create safe, sustainable communities.

Do you think anyone could pop along?

And I believe the Chairman is none other than the CEO of WDC!

[Guest missvic]

And I believe the Chairman is none other than the CEO of WDC!

Malcolm, could you enlighten me a bit further on the management of Wansbeck Homes and/or about any other financial interests that they may have... I've been having a bit of a scout around on the Cheviot Homes, Kingston Property Services and Bernicia Group sites, and although they can tell me what they do there seems to be no explaination as to how or why they do it...

New kitchens, bathrooms and windows all seem fine and well, but I'm not sure whether these improvements are worth Wansbeck giving up such an asset?

Looking at the current house prices to modestly value the average council home at £60,000, this means the council have given up £330m in homes (plus rental costs) all for a £80m investment. Something is up, is it not? Or am I being cynical?

[Malcolm Robinson]

Malcolm, could you enlighten me a bit further on the management of Wansbeck Homes and/or about any other financial interests that they may have... I've been having a bit of a scout around on the Cheviot Homes, Kingston Property Services and Bernicia Group sites, and although they can tell me what they do there seems to be no explaination as to how or why they do it...

New kitchens, bathrooms and windows all seem fine and well, but I'm not sure whether these improvements are worth Wansbeck giving up such an asset?

Looking at the current house prices to modestly value the average council home at £60,000, this means the council have given up £330m in homes (plus rental costs) all for a £80m investment. Something is up, is it not? Or am I being cynical?

You are getting there Missvic!

Let me put it this way……..hypothetically speaking of course!

Suppose you are the big cheese in the public sector in the area but for some reason you are about to loose your job. Now you don’t really want that to happen, you have been calling the shots in what is really a ‘nice’ little jobbie for so long anything less is unthinkable not to mention the salary so what can you do. In your old job you control a very valuable asset, the only one the private sector would back, but it isn’t really under your control as such. So you come up with a plan to take that asset into the private sector under your control but first you have to butter people up to get them to agree to it all. Most will not give it seconds thought of course but some might need convincing! You then use everything at your disposal while you still have authority to get everyone to agree to your plan regardless of the cost implications or who picks up the tab! Once you have everyone on board, or you say you have the majority on board, you can then put your plan into action. You form a private company to take over and control this valuable asset with you in charge but you really need a friend who has experience of this sort of thing so you look for a partner. You find one locally, it may even have been them who put the idea into your head, as they can see the income stream about to come their way for very little work and almost zero outlay. You then use your present position to write your own lease on a property you have control over, for the time being anyway, and set the whole thing up. Now you have control over a very nice ‘cash shell’ which enables you to borrow money to do the things you said were going to be available without anyone realising the whole thing is now open to the variances of the private sector and that is a whole different kettle of fish than what has gone before. You will then end up loosing your job but getting a very nice golden handshake and being able to step straight into one paying around the same money, about a grand and a half a week, and only having one part of your old job to worry about. Oh and you also take your pals with you…………

In reality this could never happen of course there are too many checks and balances in public life not the least being a legal obligation to obtain best value for any publically owned asset and everything having to be transparent!

Cynical, moi, never!

It is hard to see what could have been available to the housing stock of WDC if Wansbeck Homes didn't take control but I guess that is why there has been so much discussion and debate about the immanant changes in local government which are happening now. I would like to see/know how other authorities solved this as it is not just WDC which is to disappear. Course we have at least been able to ask the questions, everyone being a'shareholder' in WDC, we even paid people to represent us at 'board level', now we have no insights into the goings on at Wansbeck Homes that being a private company, even one to which we gave their asset base!

[Guest missvic]

Course we have at least been able to ask the questions, everyone being a'shareholder' in WDC, we even paid people to represent us at 'board level', now we have no insights into the goings on at Wansbeck Homes that being a private company, even one to which we gave their asset base!

We can ask the questions, but I'm not really sure about the answers... the Wansbeck website has little information, and asks you to contact the press office for further information (they don't reply!), while Wansbeck Homes themselves refuse to put themselves on the spot when I called with some queries, conveniently disconnecting or putting me through to voicemail mid-conversation... Cheviot Homes, Kingston Property and the parent company Bernica seem to be equally as cagey at disclosing information to the public via their websites... I find this all very odd for companies allegedly working in the public interest...

There's no particular reason why I have taken up concern in this matter, other than that I assumed that all Wansbeck residents would be involved in the process, as it is in the financial interest of everyone as to where public money and assets are going, is it not? It seems that the vote to change to Wansbeck Homes was always going to be successful from the Jack Charlton videos up at the council offices to the discussions which were only going to involve residents being fed council-produced information. When given the promise of new kitchens, bathrooms and windows, who is going to vote against it?

Like yourself, I am unsure of what else could have been done, but the options open to residents were very narrow and seem to involve choosing the same people representing them, but only with a further cost.

As a young-un, I only vaguely recall the public services being privatised in the '80s, but even as a child, I remember that there was uproar... In this case the public have had one of their greatest assets taken from under their nose, without most people even knowing about it.

I know very little about the current financial structure of the council, and even less about what the future plans will hold, but surely the revenue generated from the houses themselves would go a fair way to achieving the targets needed to be met by 2012, while I have doubts over a grants structure where funding for the repairs can suddenly become available once the houses are transferred to a private company. Whether this is a national strategy to transfer the country's homes to their nearest and dearest or only a local one, lots of questions are going unanswered, while some wont even be aware that this is even happening.

I have no reason to doubt that Wansbeck Homes will reach the targets promised by 2012 to satisfy the tenants, but will they continue to do so? And will their means be as impartial as the council were required to be? I wonder whether schemes which, like this one, that require only a few million in the grander scheme of things are going to end up costing the government much more in future years or regulatory bodies to ensure that the companies are doing their jobs correctly and without bias.

Perhaps I'm just suspicious? But when something so huge is taken on in such a covert manner, usually something is up!

[Malcolm Robinson]

Perhaps I'm just suspicious? But when something so huge is taken on in such a covert manner, usually something is up!

Wise head on young shoulders for a change!

I would be really concerned if the old council stock is used as collateral for present/future loans against it. They shout that it is a 'not for profit' company, ok it just has to pay its employees and staff, but why the need to include Cheviot and whats in it for them? We have all seen the implications of a 'mutual' going private and what happens if managment isn't up to the job.........

Lots of questions which need to be answered and I hope our elected representatives were on the ball when this came before them! Speaking of which we still seem to be waiting for Stu's councillor to put in an appearance!

[Guest missvic]

They shout that it is a 'not for profit' company, ok it just has to pay its employees and staff, but why the need to include Cheviot and whats in it for them?

Are Cheviot Homes a 'not for profit'?

Also, the parent company, Bernicia Group, and their other venture Kingston Property Management... are they as public spirited in their business outlook? I sincerely hope that other companies in the group are going to benefit financially in this take over? A Companies House search may shed a bit more light on this tomorrow...

[Guest missvic]

Ok... so a call to the parent company the Bernicia Group has provided me with the following information:

*The Bernicia Group are not a not-for-profit organisation

*Neither are one of their 2 other companies Kingston Property Management

*Wansbeck Homes is going to work alongside Cheviot Homes to 'share resources'

Also

*I am not allowed to know whether David Nicholson et al are in a paid capacity with Wansbeck Homes and if they are salaries 'cannot be divulged'

*The future of Wansbeck council is undecided and the decision to create Wansbeck Homes has nothing to do with it

Finally

*'As this only affects council tennants, I don't know why you want to know this information'

Surely there is some public body that should be scruitinising these gentleman-rogues

[Malcolm Robinson]

Also

*I am not allowed to know whether David Nicholson et al are in a paid capacity with Wansbeck Homes and if they are salaries 'cannot be divulged'

*The future of Wansbeck council is undecided and the decision to create Wansbeck Homes has nothing to do with it

Finally

*'As this only affects council tennants, I don't know why you want to know this information'

Surely there is some public body that should be scruitinising these gentleman-rogues

Welcome to the world of walking around with your eyes open!

An simple answer to the above would be that you were a 'shareholder' in the asset base until it has handed over and treated in such a cavalier fashion! It would therefore not be unreasonable to question and look for 'best value' in the company which has taken them over!

The future of Wansbeck council is undecided and the decision to create Wansbeck Homes has nothing to do with it

A particulally facile remark as one would not have been developed, or probably allowed to be, without the other!

[Denzel]

Council house scranners should get nowt.

[Dave]

Council house scranners should get nowt.

hahahahaha

[Malcolm Robinson]

Morpeth joins in the fun.....but not at Choppington Welfare!

http://www.newspostleader.co.uk/wansbeck-n...more.3776334.jp

Looks to be the same level of information in the article though!

[Denzel]

hahahahaha

Good man.