Forum Topic

ICG's comments on Hounslow Homes Tucker Report

Millions lost as ‘Hopeless Homes’ fades into the mists of time  Hounslow officers and Councillors seem to have washed their hands of the appalling scandal that has enveloped the council’s old Housing company Hounslow Homes, dubbed ‘Hopeless Homes’ by a former Labour Councillor.  A report by consultant Steven Tucker has said that a catalogue of mismanagement by the HH bosses have led to massive financial losses, poor services to tenants and a culture of bullying, sexual harassment and corruption which utterly shames the council,  the former board members and the senior bosses. Examples of things that went wrong include : • Incompetent usage and theft of materials – the ICG estimates that this has led to a loss of £2.3m, something which the council was unable to disprove. • Bad running of the call centre• Turning a blind eye to wrong doing• Sacking of anyone who ‘rocked the boat’• Hiding financial figures or bending them to fit what the bosses wanted• Staff having stock delivered to their home for their own use• Mistakes in handling corruption allegations which meant that at least one member of staff got away scot-free• Family and friends taken on regardless of their ability to do the job• Top bosses leaving with golden handshakes instead of being sackedIf you think you can hold your local Councillors responsible, think again. ‘Nothing to do with us, guv’, says Hounslow Council itself, despite the fact that it wholly owned Hounslow Homes and still holds all its financial records. Even Councillors who were actually on the HH board don’t answer our emails. And what’s more, at least some of the time the Board and Finance Committee were led by so-called ‘experts’ who were never elected by anyone.  It seems likely that ‘Hopeless Homes ‘can waste or steal over £2 million of tenants’ money ( that’s about £175 per family/tenant) and then fade away like a dodgy double glazing company shutting down and nicking everyone’s deposits. If you’re concerned about this, please ask for more information from your local Councillor from the list of questions on this site on the next thread.

Ian Speed ● 3790d3 Comments

I'd like to say I'm surprised and shocked but unfortunately I'm not. From the observations that I was able to make when Hopeless Homes worked on some of the neighbouring properties they still have responsibility for where I live, it was obvious things were in the most appalling state. Work took forever when it was pretty basic, no-one worked a full day let alone a full week, it was like watching an old Laurel and Hardy film at times, and in spite of reporting these shenanigans to local councillors, nothing ever happened. Properties desperately needed were left empty for ever, one for over a year, and no-one seemed to worry about this. The saga of the gate that HH insisted we needed at the entrance to our rear access road was a prime example of their incompetence, when we first got wind it took me a lot of correspondence to figure out what the hell HH were on about - surprise, surprise, the site map they were using was for an estate in Cranford! Once we'd finally got through to them they were talking nonsense we found out they'd only consulted tenants, owner occupiers were left out completely. Everyone you spoke to said they didn't want the gate but hey ho! the consultation came back as the majority in favour, didn't believe a word of it. So there it has sat, £5000 of wasted money, which has led to more low level dumping than we have ever experienced in over 30 years living here because it has drawn attention to the fact that the access is actually there. All this would be bad enough but also some very courageous leaseholder has fought Hounslow over their outrageous charges for works to her property, so they now may face paying leaseholders back, and quite right to. How can a council not use its purchasing power to get a good deal for its leaseholders and tenants? Damned ridiculous and frankly unbelievable.

Vanessa Smith ● 3790d