Forum Topic

Guy Lambert's blog

GuyCongratulations on lasting for one year. I've dabbled with the odd blog and realise how hard it can be.I'm still not convinced that getting youngsters to invest into a credit union that makes no contractual promise as to its rate of interest payable is prudent advice. Returning to your blog this week you say'Tuesday morning our occasional meeting of the working group on the transfer of planned maintenance (of council housing) to Lampton 360 Facilities Management. This took place in April as planned and is going OK operationally, however the person who was leading for Lampton has left which means that our poor old director of Housing, who is not exactly underworked what with the aftermath of Grenfell Tower as well as everything else, now has to help Lampton go find a new director whilst overseeing the day-to-day running.'As you know it's quite remarkable that the existence of the groups you mention and their membership is unknown to me a fellow councillor and the public at large.I have no idea that a director of Lampton FM has left the reasons why or even his salary. Perhaps you'll update us?Can we also see the minutes of these meetings. Given the current uncontrolled costs of our Lampton waste operation, its inability to provide KPIs a new £22m recycling centre and now an as yet unfunded obligation of circa £6-7m to reinstate the Spaceway Waste Centre  its time to come clean on what's happening.Cosy little labour groups  with big egos and little experience are wrecking LBH finances.Cabinet members consistently show in my view how little they know about their brief. You must surely agreeJohn

John Todd ● 2939d18 Comments

They are not secured. People sign over their child benefit to the CU to give us some comfort that we will get automatic repayment. They are at liberty to cancel that arrangement at any time, and some do (which sometimes leads to loans going sour).Borrowing £500 from Thamesbank at our maximum rate would cost about £54 in interest. Doing the same with Provident would cost £436, Wonga £428.20, Sunny £380.10 (from their websites). Still look very high?

Guy Lambert ● 2929d

John, the rate of 3% per month (42.6% APR) was introduced as a new cap for credit union loans by your coalition government, because they had the (rare) good sense to realise that the previous cap of 2% per month (c 27% APR) was unsustainable for small loans to people with weak credit histories and in the absence of any set up fees.Our 'competitors' typically charge anything from 800 to 1500% and traditional banks simply don't offer loans below about £3000 (and would exclude many of our clients because of their credit history)The 'professional fees' that we pay are primarily to the cooperative enterprise - Credit Union Solutions - who undertake all our administration and who perform the same service for 6 credit unions. We have a very transparent relationship with them and a full understanding of their costs. We agree a fair apportionment of their total costs between the 6 clients. Our fees have been coming down in recent years due to efficiency savings by Credit Union Solutions and due to our sister credit unions taking a larger share of the overall costs.We will put up a new website shortly and I'll endeavour to get our latest (2016) accounts published there. They are not a secret and are available on the Prudential Regulation Authority website (for a fee!) I'll happily share them with you (and anybody else who wants them)

Guy Lambert ● 2929d

Wow those interest rates look very highNot sure that loans secured against benefits is morally right either

Paul Fisher ● 2929d

GuyYour credit union website mentions benefit secured loans charging 42% interest another charging 28% and large loans of 3k upwards 6%Why such a variation? Why do your 2013 accounts ( the onlyone shown)  record such a huge sum (50k) for Professional fees?John

John Todd ● 2929d

Which is why we provide an alternative where nobody is going to become a millionaire (or get paid a penny)

Guy Lambert ● 2933d

"But the last thing we should be doing is encouraging people to borrow who otherwise would not do so."Anyone who advertises lending risks encouraging people to borrow who otherwise would not do so. Its a no brainer and it is exactly how so many owners / directors of these firms became millionaires virtually overnight.

Steve Taylor ● 2933d

A good point Natasha, and one we will consider. We have to have borrowers - 99% of our income comes from interest on loans - and people are better off borrowing from us than other lenders despite John Todd's scepticism.  999% interest pays for a lot of ads on Facebook and daytime TV so we have to find ways of countering that.But the last thing we should be doing is encouraging people to borrow who otherwise would not do so.

Guy Lambert ● 2933d

"How many of us would be willing or able take on his job as a councillor for a basic allowance (in 2016/17) of £9,276 plus £2,137 special responsibility allowance, let alone take the time to write a weekly blog?"As with all bloggers it's purely to massage ones own ego and self importance.(Cue Church Street massacre!)  Blogging is not selfless! No violins are necessary. Guy obviously needs the weekly therapy the constant blogging affords him.Strange that when John Todd asks some open and decent questions, the best Guy can do is blame the Conservative / ICG coalition administration of years ago. Sad! 

Steve Taylor ● 2936d

I don't think that's entirely true. People often join credit unions because they've got no where else to turn to borrow money. They offer things like loans where the payments are taken directly from child benefit. Much preferable than some door step loans or pay day loans of course but the current tactic of encouraging people to borrow for "back to school loans" by offering the chance to win one of three cash amounts if taken out by the 31st August, doesn't sit right with me.

Natasha Adams ● 2936d

"What you write is up for comment,whether positive or negative in  nature."Not under the current regime it isn't, one will NOT criticise, or have a view contrary to that of the Lampton Lordships.

Vanessa Smith ● 2937d

Well said. We all get things wrong sometimes - Guy too - as I'm sure he is himself aware.

Anne England ● 2937d

I, for one, read Guy Lambert's blog every week (call me a sad old git if you like).Many of the topics on this forum contain (usually justified) criticisms of the failure of councillors and officers at LB Hounslow to provide local residents and employers with sufficient and timely information. There is also a consistent theme regarding the poor performance of LB Hounslow in responding to emails, telephone calls and complaints. This applies to many councillors irrespective of their political colours.It seems to me that Guy Lambert has made a significant and effective effort to communicate with all of us. The general tone in which his blog is written is, to my mind, remarkably refreshing and I can only think that those who get upset by some of his observations have suffered a double bypass of humour and irony and have developed worrying symptoms of over-sensitivity. I can also say that, in my experience, Guy Lambert is one of the very few councillors who has the courtesy to respond promptly to emails and who does his best to sort out whatever the problem may be.How many of us would be willing or able take on his job as a councillor for a basic allowance (in 2016/17) of £9,276 plus £2,137 special responsibility allowance, let alone take the time to write a weekly blog? It's worth noting that Guy Lambert did not receive a penny for other expenses in 2016/17. I say this in the grateful knowledge that some of the other regular contributors to this forum have served, or currently serve, as councillors.Keep up the good work, Guy!

Jim Storrar ● 2937d

Vanessa might read it because she would like to know how a public servant such as yourself spends his time as you are willing to share that. What you write is up for comment,whether positive or negative in  nature. I would have thought that you, being a democrat, were happy for people to read and comment.

Keith Iddon ● 2937d

I don't know why you read my blog, Vanessa  as it seems to upset you and reading it is not compulsory.If other people (including people from Isleworth) did not tell me they appreciate it, perhaps I'd cease to bother and save myself a couple of hours work each week, even though I think it's important to share what's going on in the council.As to Sarah Trimmer, as you might remember from when you were a councillor, making things happen (or not happen) is not always easy but we will get Trimmer rebuilt as a single unit, unless our decisions are overturned by the Planning Inspectorate.

Guy Lambert ● 2938d

Thanks John, it's actually 2 years.The council is still trying to unravel the mess your administration left with costly inflexible outsourced contracts which didn't deliver even before the enormous cuts in central government grants, and are completely unsustainable now. It's your chums in central government that are trying to mess up Hounslow's (and most other councils') finances but as you well know from the independent peer report LBH is doing a very good job when judged by its peers from other councils, including those of your political persuasion.As to your constant criticism of the Credit Union, it's a cooperative owned by its members and run entirely for their benefit. People join because they believe in banding together to help each other in the local community: we don't promise interest because we pay out dividends according to what members decide we can afford. In recent years this has been a much better return than you'd get for a completely flexible savings account in a bank.

Guy Lambert ● 2938d

Yes, he makes an effort, but I'm afraid that given the fairly toxic recent history of events in Isleworth a more careful choice of words would have been in order. Cr***ing all over a lot of people and taking the p*ss on a big scale on the Church St. closure - which councillors did, isn't forgotten as so many live with the consequences of their two finger salute every day whilst sitting in traffic. Sorry if a lot of us don't think any of this is hilarious, Peter Kay he ain't. On top of this the dismal and appalling failure of Brentford councillors in particular and Hounslow as a whole to stand up to rapacious developers and allow the destruction of a Grade II listed building - one of the last remaining parts of Brentford's history is nothing  short of shameful. A comedian he isn't - stick to your day job Cllr. Lambert, that's what you take the money for.

Vanessa Smith ● 2938d

Whatever one's view on the Labour party ruling LBH or Cllr. Lambert as an individual, he's on a hiding to nothing writing a regular blog, and I'm lost why the obviously firmly tongue in cheek 'hooligans' comment would cause offence - abit of a sense of humour bypass IMHO.Maybe Cllr. Lambert should just write a blog sporadically, like Cllr. Hearn on CW4 ? - and I don't mean that as a criticism or a dig, simply a statement of fact that regardless of the content of his blog at least he makes the effort week in, week out.

Adam Beamish ● 2939d

I don't know if Cllr. Lambert has had a courtesy by-pass or is just being crass, but referring to people from Isleworth who attend the IBAF meetings as 'hooligans' is neither smart nor funny. Given the way Isleworth has been treated perhaps he will forgive us for being a tad touchy? He seems to be taking his lead from his Dear Leader - Cllr. Curran  - another graduate of the Donald Trump charm school.

Vanessa Smith ● 2939d