Tenants slam Pavilion Housing Association
Keith Parkins | 20.09.2004 16:05 | Analysis | Repression | Social Struggles
Pavilion tenants at a meeting called at extremely short notice, slammed Pavilion Housing Association for their failings on repairs, maintenance, and failures to deal with anti-social behaviour. Blame for these problems was placed firmly and squarely at the door of Pavilion chief executive Mervyn Jones. Tenants called for Jones to go.
Around 50 tenants gathered at Connaught School in Aldershot last Wednesday evening to discuss the problems they were all experiencing with Pavilion Housing Association. Some only learnt of the meeting that afternoon, it was called at very short notice, but such was their concern, that they changed their arrangements for the evening and made every effort to attend.
Also in attendance, busily scribbling down everything everyone said, were a couple of infiltrators sent by Pavilion to spy on the proceedings.
There were two main areas of concern: the yobs terrorising the estates and the failure to carry out repairs.
I told the meeting that according to Pavilion chief executive Mervyn Jones, when he was summoned to appear before a council committee in July, all his tenants were happy, repairs were carried out within ten days. The reaction of all present was that this was utter garbage. No one had heard of anyone getting their repairs done so quickly, and I have to admit that after months of trying, I have yet to find anyone who is either happy or had their repairs carried out within ten days. And the Audit Commission, in their damning indictment of Pavilion, was of the same view.
One tenant told me how she had to take a mallet to her door to close it. Another told me of years of abuse and threatening behaviour by a neighbour. An eviction order had been obtained on the neighbour, only Pavilion has failed to evict. When the poor lady has raised this with Pavilion and demanded action, they have turned round and said she was harassing them!
I went to the meeting by bus (and what a hassle that was). There were no buses back. It was too dangerous for the buses and their crews.
A girl on the bus told me how bad it was on the Pavilion estates. How they have to call the police nightly. No one seems to care. She told me it was not like this when she grew up. The estates were well managed before Pavilion took over ten years ago, what was at the time, Rushmoor Council Housing.
This was a common theme. Tenant after tenant told me that they did not have these problems before the estates were privatised and Pavilion became their new landlords. This should serve as a warning to any council tenants being offered privatisation.
The tenants were unanimous in their wishes to see Pavilion chief executive Mervyn Jones go, the board go and the senior management go. There was not a single dissenting voice. They want to see a clean sweep of the top level of Pavilion as they have no confidence in them. Even the infiltrators sent by Pavilion nodded their assent that they wished to see Jones go!
Another theme briefly discussed was the attempts by Pavilion to merge with Atlantic, an Eastleigh-based housing association. Other than leaks in the past week in the local press and on Indymedia UK, this was the first anyone was aware of this. Pavilion and Atlantic have been engaged in talks for months, but not only have they failed to consult their tenants, they have not had the courtesy to even inform their tenants.
The tenants, not surprisingly, were dead against the merger. There is nothing in it for the tenants. The only beneficiaries will be the senior management who are empire building. The tenants will be worst off.
By coincidence, and that was why the meeting was called, Pavilion were briefing selected invited guests the very same evening at Bob Potter's International Hotel on the 'merits' of the merger.
According to Jones, the tenants will be better off. Well he would say that wouldn't he as he is hoping to head the new organisation.
It is the opinion of Jones that Atlantic share the same culture as Pavilion, which is why the merger is good news: 'Atlantic was chosen because it has the closest culture and approach to housing as we have.' Is Atlantic really that bad?
The claim by Jones that 'The main reason for this grouping is that we want to improve our customer services', has been dismissed by tenants as a sick joke. It will be a new one for Jones to be concerned for the wellbeing of his 'customers' as he derogatory calls his tenants.
Jones is pushing for this merger as a last desperate attempt to save his own skin.
The meeting at Potter's was the Pavilion AGM. A curious affair when their own tenants were not informed let alone invited. The local Civic Society get an invite, but not tenants of Pavilion. Yet another example of the lack of accountability and a further warning to council tenants being pressurised into privatisation.
The merger is a long way forward. The senior management of both organisations have agreed who will have what post. All it needs is the approval of both boards, the agreement of the Housing Corporation, and it will be a done deal by January 2005.
The merger talks having been exposed by Indymedia UK and the local press, Pavilion are hastily pushing out a newsletter (tenants should get copies this week) to inform their tenants of the 'benefits'. Benefits to the management that is, not the tenants.
Atlantic has its own in-house workforce. Jones claims this will be available to Pavilion. If it is available to Pavilion, then it is not available to Atlantic.
Yes, an in-house workforce would be a good idea, but it does not need a merger to create an in-house workforce. Pavilion used to have an in-house workforce, until that is they were laid off and the work put out to outside contractors. At a meeting in January, Jones dismissed out of hand the suggestions that he went back to an in-house workforce.
Jones would be number two (in charge of new development), with the Atlantic chief executive in overall charge. The Atlantic chief executive is due to retire soon, leaving Jones free to step into his shoes.
A larger organisation would be more remote, less accountable to the tenants. At the moment, in theory, although in practice they do not, Rushmoor can exert some influence over Pavilion. They would have no influence over the merged group. It would be a large property developer accountable to no one. That is why Pavilion tenants are saying no to merger.
The merger will be yet another gravy train for consultants, bankers, lawyers, accountants. All at the tenant's expense.
The tenants are facing as big a step change as when the council housing was privatised, and it will have just as damaging an impact on their lives.
Tenants of Atlantic seem to be unaware of what is going on.
The previous week the council once again had Jones before them. It has taken ten years and a damning Audit Commission report, but finally the councillors have woken up to the fact that something is wrong. It also raises huge question marks against Rushmoor's head of housing who has not only stayed silent on Pavilion and failed to keep councillors informed, but has been singing the praises of Jones and Pavilion.
Jones claimed he was not aware of what was going on! In itself grounds for him to be fired.
An action plan was presented by Jones. Seen by everyone as a worthless piece of paper. What worth is an action plan when Jones and his useless crew are still in charge?
Jones also said he will be doubling the budget for repairs. Why was this not done sooner? Why has funds been spent on speculative property development?
The Audit Commission and Housing Corporation have backed the plan, or so claims Jones. If true, then it only goes to show, what toothless watchdogs these two bodies are.
Privately, many housing associations are saying that if they returned the piss-poor performance of Jones, he'd be made to walk, his resignation would be on the table.
Jones claims to have the support of the board. If true, the board should go.
David Welsh, Tory housing portfolio holder, has said that if the performance of Pavilion does not improve then grant aid will be withheld and Pavilion will no longer be a strategic partner of Rushmoor.
Is this an idle threat? Will it be implemented? No one expects Pavilion to improve whilst Jones, the board and his senior management remain in place.
Grant aid should be withheld now, strategic partnership dissolved, until such time as Jones, the board and the senior management Jones appointed go. Pavilion should then be on probation.
In the meantime the Housing Corporation should step in and run Pavilion.
Rushmoor councillors are openly calling for Jones to go. Or at least some of them are. The exceptions are the Farnborough LibDems.
Question marks are still being raised against the Farnborough LibDems who the community see as a bunch of useless tossers. It is easy to see why when their group leader goes behind the back of an Aldershot LibDem councillor and tells Pavilion not to carry out the list of repairs he has submitted, when as a group in their behind closed doors discussions they don't see any need to pressurise Pavilion to carry out repairs, when their leader is forced to meet tenants, tells them he will act on their concerns and weeks later they find nothing has happened. But then their leader is more concerned about his father-in-law, a fellow councillor and Pavilion board member, currently under investigation by the Standards Board for England for voting through a planning application for unwanted town centre redevelopment in which Pavilion are an interested party. Most of these councillors represent wards containing large numbers of Pavilion tenants, tenants who are getting a very raw deal if only they knew.
The only activity of Farnborough LibDems is to jump on passing bandwagons. To attempt to claim the credit for the hard work of local community activists. But the community has woken up to this, hence the regular letters in the local press critical of the LibDems.
Farnborough LibDems, especially their leader, are paranoid at their inadequacies being exposed. Their leader, as predicted, had another of his childish outbursts at their last meeting. He even threatens his members with expulsion if they agree with what he finds reported about their party in the media. He is even telling his members who they may or may not talk to. I am the party leader, you must do as I tell you.
To be fair to the Farnborough LibDems, there are one or two decent members, who are concerned at the piss-poor performance of Pavilion and the treatment of their tenants, who have expressed their views privately, but they are not publicly voicing their concerns when they see the witch hunts currently taking place.
Rushmoor LibDems have one decent councillor, local community activist Peter Sandy. He does more for the local community than all the Farnborough LibDems put together. Instead of praising this hard working member and encouraging his fellow councillors to work equally as hard on behalf of the local community, the leader does everything possible to sabotage what he is doing. Farnborough LibDems run whispering campaigns, tell the Tories they wish he had never been selected and want to be rid of him.
Apart from protecting his father-in-law, the main concern of the leader is paranoia as to what local community activists are up to. He regularly checks out Indymedia UK, paranoid at what he will find exposed next.
As with Peter Sandy, a similar whispering campaign has been run against myself, all sorts of unfounded allegations. Threats are being made against myself for exposing what is happening. An extremely dangerous thing to do when there are a whole load more skeletons rattling in the cupboard.
The Farnborough LibDems are though a trivial side issue, of little consequence to anyone, least of all the local community. The main concern is radical restructuring of Pavilion. The main problem, apart from their piss-poor performance, is the complete lack of accountability to either their own tenants or the local community.
Recommendations include:
- fire Mervyn Jones, the board and senior management of Pavilion
- no merger with Atlantic
- restructure to provide tenant accountability
Next meetings
There will be a meeting at Connaught School Aldershot 6-30pm Thursday 4 November 2004 to which Pavilion and the Police will be asked to send representatives to explain what they are doing to resolve problems of repairs and anti-social behaviour. There will be ample opportunity for questions. The second half of the meeting will be to discuss further action.
It is hoped there will be a second meeting in October to discuss the proposed merger between Pavilion and Atlantic and to discuss action to stop it.
Websites
http://www.pavilionha.co.uk/
http://www.pavilionhg.co.uk/
http://www.atlantichousing.co.uk/
http://www.rushmoor.gov.uk/
http://www.audit-commission.gov.uk/
http://www.housingcorp.gov.uk/
http://www.ihos.org.uk/
http://www.defendcouncilhousing.org.uk/
reference
Council calls on Pavilion to improve services, Farnborough Mail, 14 September 2004
Inspection report: Pavilion Housing Association, Audit Commission, July 2004
http://www.audit-commission.gov.uk/reports/BVIR.asp?CategoryID=english^1628&ProdID=4109FA2E-0E86-4771-974F-1DFC98221507
Cliff Mogg, More problems for Pavilion, Surrey-Hants Star, 9 September 2004
Keith Parkins, Audit Commission savage Pavilion Housing Association, Indymedia UK, 27 July 2004 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2004/07/295403.html
Keith Parkins, Crisis meeting at Pavilion Housing Association, Indymedia UK, 24 August 2004 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2004/08/296816.html
Keith Parkins, Pavilion Housing Association in Crisis, Indymedia UK, 25 August 2004
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2004/08/296854.html
Keith Parkins, Pavilion v Atlantic, Indymedia UK, 6 September 2004
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2004/09/297392.html
Keith Parkins, Pavilion and Atlantic Housing Groups to Merge?, Indymedia UK, 13 September 2004
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2004/09/297688.html
Keith Parkins, Time for Jones to go, letters, Surrey-Hants Star, 16 September 2004
Pavilion aims for housing group merger, Farnborough News, 17 September 2004
Pavilion in merger talks, Surrey-Hants Star, 9 September 2004
Also in attendance, busily scribbling down everything everyone said, were a couple of infiltrators sent by Pavilion to spy on the proceedings.
There were two main areas of concern: the yobs terrorising the estates and the failure to carry out repairs.
I told the meeting that according to Pavilion chief executive Mervyn Jones, when he was summoned to appear before a council committee in July, all his tenants were happy, repairs were carried out within ten days. The reaction of all present was that this was utter garbage. No one had heard of anyone getting their repairs done so quickly, and I have to admit that after months of trying, I have yet to find anyone who is either happy or had their repairs carried out within ten days. And the Audit Commission, in their damning indictment of Pavilion, was of the same view.
One tenant told me how she had to take a mallet to her door to close it. Another told me of years of abuse and threatening behaviour by a neighbour. An eviction order had been obtained on the neighbour, only Pavilion has failed to evict. When the poor lady has raised this with Pavilion and demanded action, they have turned round and said she was harassing them!
I went to the meeting by bus (and what a hassle that was). There were no buses back. It was too dangerous for the buses and their crews.
A girl on the bus told me how bad it was on the Pavilion estates. How they have to call the police nightly. No one seems to care. She told me it was not like this when she grew up. The estates were well managed before Pavilion took over ten years ago, what was at the time, Rushmoor Council Housing.
This was a common theme. Tenant after tenant told me that they did not have these problems before the estates were privatised and Pavilion became their new landlords. This should serve as a warning to any council tenants being offered privatisation.
The tenants were unanimous in their wishes to see Pavilion chief executive Mervyn Jones go, the board go and the senior management go. There was not a single dissenting voice. They want to see a clean sweep of the top level of Pavilion as they have no confidence in them. Even the infiltrators sent by Pavilion nodded their assent that they wished to see Jones go!
Another theme briefly discussed was the attempts by Pavilion to merge with Atlantic, an Eastleigh-based housing association. Other than leaks in the past week in the local press and on Indymedia UK, this was the first anyone was aware of this. Pavilion and Atlantic have been engaged in talks for months, but not only have they failed to consult their tenants, they have not had the courtesy to even inform their tenants.
The tenants, not surprisingly, were dead against the merger. There is nothing in it for the tenants. The only beneficiaries will be the senior management who are empire building. The tenants will be worst off.
By coincidence, and that was why the meeting was called, Pavilion were briefing selected invited guests the very same evening at Bob Potter's International Hotel on the 'merits' of the merger.
According to Jones, the tenants will be better off. Well he would say that wouldn't he as he is hoping to head the new organisation.
It is the opinion of Jones that Atlantic share the same culture as Pavilion, which is why the merger is good news: 'Atlantic was chosen because it has the closest culture and approach to housing as we have.' Is Atlantic really that bad?
The claim by Jones that 'The main reason for this grouping is that we want to improve our customer services', has been dismissed by tenants as a sick joke. It will be a new one for Jones to be concerned for the wellbeing of his 'customers' as he derogatory calls his tenants.
Jones is pushing for this merger as a last desperate attempt to save his own skin.
The meeting at Potter's was the Pavilion AGM. A curious affair when their own tenants were not informed let alone invited. The local Civic Society get an invite, but not tenants of Pavilion. Yet another example of the lack of accountability and a further warning to council tenants being pressurised into privatisation.
The merger is a long way forward. The senior management of both organisations have agreed who will have what post. All it needs is the approval of both boards, the agreement of the Housing Corporation, and it will be a done deal by January 2005.
The merger talks having been exposed by Indymedia UK and the local press, Pavilion are hastily pushing out a newsletter (tenants should get copies this week) to inform their tenants of the 'benefits'. Benefits to the management that is, not the tenants.
Atlantic has its own in-house workforce. Jones claims this will be available to Pavilion. If it is available to Pavilion, then it is not available to Atlantic.
Yes, an in-house workforce would be a good idea, but it does not need a merger to create an in-house workforce. Pavilion used to have an in-house workforce, until that is they were laid off and the work put out to outside contractors. At a meeting in January, Jones dismissed out of hand the suggestions that he went back to an in-house workforce.
Jones would be number two (in charge of new development), with the Atlantic chief executive in overall charge. The Atlantic chief executive is due to retire soon, leaving Jones free to step into his shoes.
A larger organisation would be more remote, less accountable to the tenants. At the moment, in theory, although in practice they do not, Rushmoor can exert some influence over Pavilion. They would have no influence over the merged group. It would be a large property developer accountable to no one. That is why Pavilion tenants are saying no to merger.
The merger will be yet another gravy train for consultants, bankers, lawyers, accountants. All at the tenant's expense.
The tenants are facing as big a step change as when the council housing was privatised, and it will have just as damaging an impact on their lives.
Tenants of Atlantic seem to be unaware of what is going on.
The previous week the council once again had Jones before them. It has taken ten years and a damning Audit Commission report, but finally the councillors have woken up to the fact that something is wrong. It also raises huge question marks against Rushmoor's head of housing who has not only stayed silent on Pavilion and failed to keep councillors informed, but has been singing the praises of Jones and Pavilion.
Jones claimed he was not aware of what was going on! In itself grounds for him to be fired.
An action plan was presented by Jones. Seen by everyone as a worthless piece of paper. What worth is an action plan when Jones and his useless crew are still in charge?
Jones also said he will be doubling the budget for repairs. Why was this not done sooner? Why has funds been spent on speculative property development?
The Audit Commission and Housing Corporation have backed the plan, or so claims Jones. If true, then it only goes to show, what toothless watchdogs these two bodies are.
Privately, many housing associations are saying that if they returned the piss-poor performance of Jones, he'd be made to walk, his resignation would be on the table.
Jones claims to have the support of the board. If true, the board should go.
David Welsh, Tory housing portfolio holder, has said that if the performance of Pavilion does not improve then grant aid will be withheld and Pavilion will no longer be a strategic partner of Rushmoor.
Is this an idle threat? Will it be implemented? No one expects Pavilion to improve whilst Jones, the board and his senior management remain in place.
Grant aid should be withheld now, strategic partnership dissolved, until such time as Jones, the board and the senior management Jones appointed go. Pavilion should then be on probation.
In the meantime the Housing Corporation should step in and run Pavilion.
Rushmoor councillors are openly calling for Jones to go. Or at least some of them are. The exceptions are the Farnborough LibDems.
Question marks are still being raised against the Farnborough LibDems who the community see as a bunch of useless tossers. It is easy to see why when their group leader goes behind the back of an Aldershot LibDem councillor and tells Pavilion not to carry out the list of repairs he has submitted, when as a group in their behind closed doors discussions they don't see any need to pressurise Pavilion to carry out repairs, when their leader is forced to meet tenants, tells them he will act on their concerns and weeks later they find nothing has happened. But then their leader is more concerned about his father-in-law, a fellow councillor and Pavilion board member, currently under investigation by the Standards Board for England for voting through a planning application for unwanted town centre redevelopment in which Pavilion are an interested party. Most of these councillors represent wards containing large numbers of Pavilion tenants, tenants who are getting a very raw deal if only they knew.
The only activity of Farnborough LibDems is to jump on passing bandwagons. To attempt to claim the credit for the hard work of local community activists. But the community has woken up to this, hence the regular letters in the local press critical of the LibDems.
Farnborough LibDems, especially their leader, are paranoid at their inadequacies being exposed. Their leader, as predicted, had another of his childish outbursts at their last meeting. He even threatens his members with expulsion if they agree with what he finds reported about their party in the media. He is even telling his members who they may or may not talk to. I am the party leader, you must do as I tell you.
To be fair to the Farnborough LibDems, there are one or two decent members, who are concerned at the piss-poor performance of Pavilion and the treatment of their tenants, who have expressed their views privately, but they are not publicly voicing their concerns when they see the witch hunts currently taking place.
Rushmoor LibDems have one decent councillor, local community activist Peter Sandy. He does more for the local community than all the Farnborough LibDems put together. Instead of praising this hard working member and encouraging his fellow councillors to work equally as hard on behalf of the local community, the leader does everything possible to sabotage what he is doing. Farnborough LibDems run whispering campaigns, tell the Tories they wish he had never been selected and want to be rid of him.
Apart from protecting his father-in-law, the main concern of the leader is paranoia as to what local community activists are up to. He regularly checks out Indymedia UK, paranoid at what he will find exposed next.
As with Peter Sandy, a similar whispering campaign has been run against myself, all sorts of unfounded allegations. Threats are being made against myself for exposing what is happening. An extremely dangerous thing to do when there are a whole load more skeletons rattling in the cupboard.
The Farnborough LibDems are though a trivial side issue, of little consequence to anyone, least of all the local community. The main concern is radical restructuring of Pavilion. The main problem, apart from their piss-poor performance, is the complete lack of accountability to either their own tenants or the local community.
Recommendations include:
- fire Mervyn Jones, the board and senior management of Pavilion
- no merger with Atlantic
- restructure to provide tenant accountability
Next meetings
There will be a meeting at Connaught School Aldershot 6-30pm Thursday 4 November 2004 to which Pavilion and the Police will be asked to send representatives to explain what they are doing to resolve problems of repairs and anti-social behaviour. There will be ample opportunity for questions. The second half of the meeting will be to discuss further action.
It is hoped there will be a second meeting in October to discuss the proposed merger between Pavilion and Atlantic and to discuss action to stop it.
Websites
http://www.pavilionha.co.uk/ http://www.pavilionhg.co.uk/ http://www.atlantichousing.co.uk/ http://www.rushmoor.gov.uk/ http://www.audit-commission.gov.uk/ http://www.housingcorp.gov.uk/ http://www.ihos.org.uk/ http://www.defendcouncilhousing.org.uk/ reference
Council calls on Pavilion to improve services, Farnborough Mail, 14 September 2004
Inspection report: Pavilion Housing Association, Audit Commission, July 2004
http://www.audit-commission.gov.uk/reports/BVIR.asp?CategoryID=english^1628&ProdID=4109FA2E-0E86-4771-974F-1DFC98221507 Cliff Mogg, More problems for Pavilion, Surrey-Hants Star, 9 September 2004
Keith Parkins, Audit Commission savage Pavilion Housing Association, Indymedia UK, 27 July 2004
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2004/07/295403.html Keith Parkins, Crisis meeting at Pavilion Housing Association, Indymedia UK, 24 August 2004
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2004/08/296816.html Keith Parkins, Pavilion Housing Association in Crisis, Indymedia UK, 25 August 2004
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2004/08/296854.html Keith Parkins, Pavilion v Atlantic, Indymedia UK, 6 September 2004
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2004/09/297392.html Keith Parkins, Pavilion and Atlantic Housing Groups to Merge?, Indymedia UK, 13 September 2004
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2004/09/297688.html Keith Parkins, Time for Jones to go, letters, Surrey-Hants Star, 16 September 2004
Pavilion aims for housing group merger, Farnborough News, 17 September 2004
Pavilion in merger talks, Surrey-Hants Star, 9 September 2004
Keith Parkins
