Steve Adams challenges Camden Labour over its Fire Safely record in protecting its tenants
The all too evident inability of Camden Council to deliver essential fire safety to homes in their portfolio was highlighted by the article in the CNJ last week. The fact that the Regulator of Social Housing has had to step, in highlights Camden’s ineffective prosecution of the most fundamental of its responsibilities.
The background to is that, over the past years, the Labour administration has not sufficiently driven officers to carry out their duties.
Having sat as a Councillor on both the Housing Scrutiny Committee and the Fire Safety Panel and having attended many District Management Committee meetings, it comes as no surprise that this is the case. Over 4 years of scrutiny meetings Camden officers continually presented an upbeat message despite downbeat performance. The committee regularly nodded through reports accepting officers’ advice that all necessary fire protection works were proceeding well. This was clearly not the case.
The slow but steadily revolving door of Managers of Housing Maintenance sits behind a part of the problem. New managers come in and promise a better service for a year or so only to eventually succumb to the painful realisation that the system is beyond fixing. They then leave and the situation is back to square one.
There appears to be an entrenched resistance to carrying out duties properly and a fluent defence of failure. That the Leader of the Council is quoted as putting the blame on the Government is of little surprise. This despite the vast contribution that the maligned Government has gifted Camden for the badly overdue and underperforming project to re-clad the Chalcot Towers. The management of Camden Housing is poorly shepherded by the Cabinet Member for Better Homes (a piece of spin if ever there was one) and this underperformance is defended by the Leader of the Council, Georgia Gould.
Far better control of Camden Housing department is necessary. If the current administration cannot and will not perform, residents should take the opportunity to vote for more capable representatives who will hold officers to task, at the next opportunity.
Steve Adams
Former Conservative Councillor
2018 -2022
