Tower Hamlets Tory group leader Cllr Peter Golds has an interesting article on ConservativeHome this morning. I’m cross-posting it with ConHome’s permission here:
Cllr Peter Golds, the Conservative opposition leader in Tower Hamllets, documents a housing scandal in his borough
In mid July I received a visit from a woman whose pregnant daughter had been housed in uncompleted student accommodation. One visit to Seth Court, Parmiter Street, Bethnal Green was shocking. Three became harrowing.
This block was designated for students, it was incomplete and the new owner was using it to house vulnerable people, young mothers and others with drink and drug problems.
I found incomplete ceilings, wires hanging free, a fire escape, blocked with building materials and uncompleted windows, a balcony with wobbling rails and as can be seen in this picture floors with windows opening directly outwards, with no catches and a four story drop. The property had not been cleared by building control or the fire service.
Vulnerable people were being “directed” by housing officers to take up private tenancies and of course housing benefit would pay. The weekly rent is £255 per week.
As well as dozens of young mothers, I met a man hardly able to stand because of the effect of drugs; another was walking corridors with a Staffordshire bull terrier, with no lead. Residents described a prostitute on her knees, in the common areas servicing men who were waiting in line!There are no letter boxes and so mail is delivered to the owner. He carefully sorts mail and opens letters from the council or other authorities. If cheques are made payable to him he banks them, if not he sends them back. One resident, Toyah, received notification that all her benefits would cease because they had been sent back. Of course the cheque had been made payable to her. Another, Kathleen, received demands that she pay the landlord in cash, or else. Yet another, Charlee, was missing medical appointments because of intercepted mail.The owner is a man called Yusuf Sarodia who lives in Ilford. He runs a company, which is difficult to identify because it is registered but there are no accounts and the postcode has an incorrect letter. It can be traced to a vacant plot in Hackney.Yusuf Sarodia, when he learned that residents were speaking to the local press and councillors, served eviction notices on some residents. He threatened the local paper and called me to say “you are a councillor now, you might not be tomorrow.”
The police have been informed about the threats and the council are promising not to send any more vulnerable people here.
From the top floor of this building you can actually see the Olympic site.
In late July I met Rachel, a young woman who was renting a one bedroom property on Commercial Road, E1. Rachel is in work and this was available. It was, she thought, a one time council property purchased under Right to Buy. The landlord was a young man who eventually gave her notice to quit, which became difficult with her losing possessions including her cat.
Discussions with neighbours established that this property was not actually his. It was a council tenancy and in the name of his grandmother, Mrs Bibi.
Having made an enquiry I was told, and I quote the letter exactly, “I can confirm that we are currently dealing with a request to assign the tenancy from Mrs Bibi (who is absent from the property) to her grandson.
Hold on, this is a one bedroom flat. Were grandmother and grandson sharing a room? Mrs Bibi is “absent from the property”, where and how?
Fortunately Rachel has bank evidence, driving licence and other information to prove that she and not the young man was actually resident in this flat.
Will the council check where Mrs Bibi and her grandson are living? Do they receive benefits in respect of this flat? Will the tenancy be assigned?
Do not hold your breath.
Trial by Jeory 
It all depends who runs the housing department and who assigns lettings and who carrys out inspections. To me the whole department smells of nepotism and corruption and should be cleaned out and replaced with honest people, preferrably not related to the residents.
Good to see a Tory waking up to the reality of poverty. Can’t see the conservative – Libdem housing benefit cuts helping much.
Can’t see the conservative – Libdem housing benefit cuts helping much. @Judoker
Wrong, the Housing Benefits changes are designed to stop cut-price Rachman wannabees like Yusuf Sarodia over charging for sub-standard properties and farming housing benefits. From now on they will be obliged to reduce rents to the new maximums (or lose their tax-payer funded cheques). Alternatively they could upgrade their properties to compete in the private market. Either way society benefits.
I suggest both Cllr Golds and Ted try following the money on this one.
* Find out who are the builders and name them. Builders are responsible for securing a building site and ensuring health and safety at all times for building personnel and anybody else visiting the site. Sounds to me very much as if this site has not been completed and signed off and hence no members of the public should be on the site at all.
* Find out if which organisation (if any) is providing public funding for this development and name them.
* Find out who gave the Planning Permission and name them (see below)
* Find out who in Building Regulations has been inspecting this building – or not – and name them. Habitation of properties cannot commence until the building has been signed off.
* Find out who is responsible for assigning people to properties without inspection of whether or not they are suitable – and name them.
Incidentally – you might also like to check the planning permission for the development in some detail. I took a look and there is no application relating to “Seth Court”. Unless its previous use was also to house students it’s very likely that an application should have been made for the development. But then it doesn’t sound as if this individual bothers too much with the niceties of the systems set up to protect the public from sharks like this.
However this is the link to all the planning applications relating to the former Parmiter Industrial Centre in Parmiter Street
This is the page on Tower Hamlets Council’s website which provides a listing of all the planning applications submitted which relate to the development in Parmiter Street (PA/07/02294) which included 54 studio flats for students as well as social housing and other uses
Incidentally the decision notice indicates it was given in June 2008 – but there is no indication of which Council Committee it went to. This and other documents rather give the impression that planning permission was a decision by the Head of Development Control. Which given its size and the extent of the change of use is very surprising.
I’d suggest you see if you can find out:
* what planning officers were told – and told Councillors at the time
* what conditions were placed on the development and
* what controls have been applied in respect of its development.
It’s even easier than all that. Environmental Health should have been notified, should have inspected the place and would have closed it down. I can see several category 1 (most severe) hazards from the description alone – a combination of them should be enough to close the place down.
But also bear in mind that Peter is writing his piece (quoted by Ted) for Conservative Home – he’s playing to a Conservative audience to try to suggest that x council (you could substitute the name of any council in England and Wales run by a party which is not the Conservatives) is paying HB to substandard accommodation. Anyone who thinks that the Daily Mail is bad should try reading Conservative Home some time – it makes them sound absolutely sane. It is on a par with the Taxpayers Alliance (whose leading lights, I have a feeling, frequently post on there).
His argument doesn’t stand up, however, because you could visit any number of Conservative-run councils and find that they are doing exactly the same thing. I have no doubt that Westminster, Hammersmith and Wandsworth will be paying out for substandard accommodation and may probably be even more hardlline about the tenants’ obligation to take a tenancy or consider themselves voluntarily homeless.
And let’s not forget Shirley Porter keeping council tenants (ie those the council were obliged to house themselves) in asbestos-ridden condemned blocks of flats.
I think that either Ch4 Despatches or Panorama investigated the fiddles going on in the council housing rackets quite recently. I was shocked then and remain so.
Paul Ingham is missing the point in his observations on the housing benefit reforms. Vulnerable people are now obliged (because of the Tory HB reforms) to seek properties at the bottom of the market. Rachmanite landlords are flourishing.
Peter Golds says ‘The weekly rent is £255 per week.’ He doesn’t say if that was for a one bed or a two bed property. TH own website shows that the Local Housing Allowance for a 2 bed property is £280. So it is not surprising that housing officials advised her to take this property.
Furthermore under the HB reforms from April 2011 Local Authorities can pay Housing Benefit to the landlord where it considers it will help them to rtain the tenancy.
What Peter has found out is truly shocking. However, again because of the cuts that the council has had to make the ability of council officers to investigate these abuses is strictly limited. There are only so many hours in the day and if the number of staff employed to investigate abuses is cut – and remember these count as ‘back office’ bureaucrats or as PWE Ingham would have it ‘busybody regulators’ fewer of these scandals will be fully investigated.
The activities of Yusuf Sarodia are truly disgusting!!! But also the result of an unregulated private sector housing market
Hi, I live overlooking the Seth Court development. It is an absolute shamble and I can confirm that I complained to the council (including Environmental Health) on a number of occasions during its construction. I was told by the site manager that the council changed their plans at the last minute because the main developer (Team Homes) ran out of money and sold off a portion of the land. Please can you give me your email address and I will fill you in? I’ve also liaised with Yusef Sarodia…
All best regards,