Councillor Meric Apak, who is responsible for Camden housing, wrote last week attempting to place all blame for housing maintenance issues at the feet of central government in the same edition that the CNJ ran a headline story focusing on the terrible state of the housing repairs department. All this could have been written several years ago; and I suspect probably was.
In the four years when I was a Councillor, the Housing Scrutiny Committee and District Management Committees continually heard tales of this failing department. The newly appointed head of repairs assured committees that everyone should bear with him while he strove to handle the situation and bring improvements to the borough’s housing. Like those before him he left his office once he realised that this department is immovable in its obstinate determination to underperform.
One of the axioms of effective management leadership is to “lead by example”. In recent years the Cabinet Member for Better Homes has stepped back from dealing with difficult matters such as the Chalcots re-clad contract, ceding all responsibility to officers who are continuing to tell the happy story of a project running long overdue and unpopular with many residents. This abrogation of duty is hardly a good example to those working in the Housing Department and his suggestion that all of Camden’s problems are the fault of government, lends this large in-house team a built-in excuse for failure.
In one Housing Scrutiny meeting I suggested that outside consultants be employed to oversee and resolve the awful housing repairs problems. Councillor Julian Fulbrook angrily berated me for suggesting the employment of external consultants. There are two things far worse than employing external consultants. One is having to and the other is employing highly paid council officers to spin that maintenance is working well when it isn’t.
With bad cases of black mould around the very recently installed windows in the Chalcot towers and continuing variations to the original design, this project is not going well despite the sunny reports from Camden. One of the tenant’s associations in the Chalcots Estate was brave enough to protest about the project only to be cut off from Camden support and suspended from the DMC as a punishment for not toeing the Council line.
When will Councillor Apak set an example and return to dealing with the Chalcots project and take control of his failing maintenance department rather than pass the buck?
