Tenants and leaseholders are paying for Labour's mismanagement of City's housing as strike announced

Housing maintenance

  • GMB to strike in August over housing repairs contract

  • Announcement follows revelations Labour paying £1200/day for Housing Director

  • Tenants and leaseholders paying for Labour’s inability to manage City’s housing

 

Conservative Group Spokesperson on Housing Mary Mears said tenants and leaseholders were paying for Labour’s continued inability to manage the housing portfolio through their own rent contributions, after strike action against Brighton & Hove City Council was announced yesterday.

 

Labour’s decision to bring the housing repairs service in-house has already cost millions of pounds in set-up costs, ultimately paid for by the rent contributions of tenants and leaseholders to the Housing Revenue Account.

 

Yesterday the GMB confirmed that it has served notice for industrial action on Brighton & Hove City Council on behalf of members working within the housing repairs contract, due to the council refusing to negotiate a pay claim.

 

The strike is the latest in a series of blunders in the housing portfolio, including:

 

 

Cllr Mears said that the strike was another blow to tenants and leaseholders and reflected on Labour’s mismanagement of the portfolio.

 

“There are many people in the city on waiting lists for basic maintenance on their properties that this strike will impact” she said.

 

“These groups are already unhappy that that Labour is paying £1200 a day for a housing director and constantly reducing the pool of funding available for repairs by redirecting funds away from the HRA budget to other purposes.

 

“It is important to remember that all these blunders end up being paid for through the Housing Revenue Account, which itself is made from contributions from leaseholders and tenants’ rents.

 

“Labour in its decisions is not putting tenants and leaseholders of council properties in this city first and it is unsurprising that we are hearing that tenants and leaseholders groups across the City are not happy and have reached the point where they have lost confidence in Labour’s their ability to manage the HRA and this portfolio” she said.

 

Conservative Group Leader Steve Bell said strike action was the last thing Brighton & Hove needed as it was trying to recover from COVID-19.

 

“Some of the poorest people in our City rely on a well-run housing portfolio and that is not what they are getting from this administration” he said.

 

“This strike will add further to their concerns and will just make the wait for basic repairs longer.

 

“The Labour Administration is being accused by the union of breaking its promise to workers when it decided to bring the service in-house.

 

“I call on the Leader of the Council to personally intervene to resolve this issue along with the other issues building up in the housing portfolio which reflects badly on her administration” he said.

 

ENDS.