Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Sharon McMillan takes on Wendy Alexander's GHA to get it to understand fairness, Alexander missed that out, McMillan is no champagne socialist














Dear All

You would think that the people who run the Glasgow Housing Association would think things through carefully before wishing to make dramatic changes given their history of failure of deliver.

The Labour controlled GHA put forward proposals to streamline the rent system.

One small point of this new approach was that it was unfair by any standards of natural justice.

51% would be better off and 49% would be considerably worse off.

So, their pitch was that the new system would make it “simpler, fairer and easier to understand.”

The idea was good but the application wasn’t!

Four months of consultation, the GHA board now says it needs to do “more work”.

This begs the question, why wasn’t it not done before and where was the strategic thinking?

The consultation prompted hundreds of tenants to sign a petition calling for the restruc­ture plan to be binned.

Sharon McMillan, a GHA tenant in Springburn, who organised a petition against the rent changes, took a prominent role in leading for the GHA to think again.

Acting director of housing and customer services, Alex McGuire, said;

“GHA listens to its tenants and stakeholders, which is why the proposals have been put on hold. This decision proves the consultation held from August to November, last year, was genuine and meaningful.”

Try, the Scottish Government is looking at the GHA under a microscope as a more apt reason to the GHA newfound listening attitude.

Previous reports in the GHA found, numerous complaints from tenants and homeowners in GHA buildings being ignored.

Unsurprisingly, those facing decreases are very supportive of the proposals and those whose rent would increase firmly against.

It seems that the GHA needs to go back to the drawing board, this time with a new ‘teacher’.

In a time of such economic uncertainty the last thing that the GHA needs to be doing is pricing people out of their homes.

This is another example of why the GHA needs to be restructured; they think they are in their own little world, well the SNP Government is coming a calling.

The white elephant created by Labour MSP Wendy Alexander yet again lurches in the wrong direction.

Pricing poor people out of better areas is wrong.

Yours sincerely

George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University

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