• I AM a retired plumber and have lived in my council flat in Kentish Town all my life.

I have seen caretakers come and go. But the service they provide has declined year on year and the corresponding service charge the council charges has been going up in direct proportion.

Your reader Mr Loizou is defending caretakers admirably (Camden’s caretakers deserve better, January 17), but I would suggest that branding councillors as “New Labour” is a little naïve of him.

Because these are the very councillors who are finally planning to bring the caretaking service back in-house, something New Labour would have never contemplated!

The reason unions are “silent” on the issue of normalising current employment contracts is probably because there is unfair inconsistency in these contracts built up over time, and in any event when the new enhanced service is implemented caretakers are bound to be on a higher wage.

Mr Loizou proposes upping their wages regardless in line with those few legacy contracts without waiting for the review to conclude.

I wonder if he as a tenant rep would be prepared to ask fellow tenants like me to pay with corresponding hike in service charges for a mediocre service they provide now.

FIONA GILBERT
NW5