‘Camden tenants deserve the opportunity to have proper consultation and scrutiny on housing policy and management matters’

• CAMDEN Council is proposing to set up a new company which could take over social homes planned for Somers Town.

According to the documents listed for the upcoming housing scrutiny committee on September 5, the new subsidiary company is to be called the Camden Living (Social Offer) Ltd which could then take over the 34 social housing units to be built in Somers Town.

Yet this is the first time any tenants have heard of this proposal and no TRAs or other tenants’ organisations have been informed.

The management of the new housing company will be through the cabinet and will not involve local councillors. In fact there will be very little scrutiny because the housing of the Somers Town and other developments, such as Camley Street, would be enclosed in a private company owned by the council.

The council will avoid the right of secure tenants to be consulted under the Housing Act 1985 by claiming that the “…strategy will not involve management / stock transfer of any existing council social rent units subject to secure tenancies”.

However this is a grey area. If a local lettings policy is adopted for the new Somers Town units, then current secure tenants will no doubt bid for the new homes.

Consulting tenants on the future of their homes before decisions are taken matters. Tenants have fought for the right to be consulted over the years, such as during the ALMO campaign in Camden where they turned down the formation of an arm’s-length company for housing.

Furthermore all of these changes in management cost money. The public is not permitted to see the figures for setting up the company at the September 5 meeting because they are barred from publication.

Camden tenants deserve the opportunity to have proper consultation and scrutiny on housing policy and management matters before fundamental decisions such as those being proposed are taken.

PAUL TOMLINSON, NW1