Apologies for the lack of posts recently; I have a funny feeling I’ll be making up for it over the next few months.
Lutfur’s finance man Cllr Alibor Choudhury has always been a man to watch. He has a colourful past and in his younger, (even) more fiery days he had a battle or two with gangs on Stepney’s Ocean estate.
He then saw the light and channelled his considerable energies (and passion) into community politics and became a prominent figure with the Ocean New Deal Communities multimillion pound funding well.
All this brought him to the attention of Labour’s John Biggs, who took the little cherub under his wing and prepared him for councillor stardom. Everyone knew Alibor was John’s protege and during Labour’s selection contest for the parliamentary seat of Bethnal Green and Bow in 2007 (eventually won by Rushanara Ali), Alibor was John’s biggest cheerleader. (Well, that’s what he told me at least.)
How times have changed. At full council meetings now, Alibor positively hisses hatred towards his former mentor sitting in the public gallery.
Politics is such a nasty business and I’d have thought it wiser not to upset those who know where the bodies (and current skeletons) lie.
That said, I’ve always quite liked him and I wish him luck in his new quest: to get elected in the newly drawn ward of Stepney Green. He’s deserted his current patch in Shadwell to return to his homeland where he’ll be standing for Tower Hamlets First alongside Oliur Rahman.
Here’s their leaflet:
Alibor has also been getting out and about, knocking on people’s doors telling them “We’re bringing the council to you”. It’s extremely thoughtful and let’s hope he’s been making it clear he’s a councillor and not a council officer doing the rounds.
Because I’m sure he knows the distinction and I’m sure he knows how things are done properly.
Or does he?
Two months ago, Tower Hamlets Homes had something of a crisis moment when its chairman Barry Simons–a highly respected housing expert who had been director of housing at Newham, Redbridge and Hammersmith before his THH appointment in 2012–suddenly quit.
And in his bombshell resignation letter to the Mayor (whom he described as “an exceptional man”), he put the blame squarely at Alibor’s door.
He said Alibor had “made it impossible for the Board to function properly” and that “trust has broken down between Cllr Choudhury (and possibly other council nominees) and some other non-council Board members”.
The row centred on plans for a massive review of caretaking services by Tower Hamlets Homes. At the moment, they are too expensive and they fail satisfaction surveys. The way these costs are then allocated to leaseholders and tenants is a hugely controversial issue and it seems Lutfur has told THH to stop penalising leaseholders so heavily….and that’s fair enough.
But when Mr Simons wanted to stick to best corporate practice and discuss a report on the matter, Alibor threw his toys out of the pram and walked out. Maybe he had a more satisfying engagement elsewhere, I don’t know.
Trouble at Tower Hamlets Homes is becoming a traditional New Year message for this blog. The title of my first post in 2012 was “Lutfur’s putsch at Tower Hamlets Homes” when I warned that his takeover of the board with his own councillors was bound to cause trouble.
This is the trouble with Lutfur’s administration: they just seem like a bunch of cowboys.
Here’s Barry Simons’ resignation letter:
Trial by Jeory 
This is only one side of the story – many, many THH residents are concerned about the supposed ‘restructure’ of THH services and would be very happy if Alibor Choudhury or indeed any councillor was intervening to amend or stop plans.
Barry Simon’s letter suggests that the restructure has been carefully planned and based on a ‘thorough analysis’. Closer inspection suggests that they have been drawn up on the back of a fag packet in order to be able to promise savings for absent leaseholders who don’t care if estates become ghettos as long as they make money from their overcrowded flats.
Residents have been told that the plan is for estates not to be cleaned every weekday as now, but instead ‘as needed’. And just one of the many other changes that Barry Simon fails to mention is that estates will no longer have locally based Housing Officers – residents will be forced to use a call centre instead, who obviously have no local knowledge and won’t detect things such as contractors charging for non-completed communal repairs.
An independent resident leaseholder group – SELA – produced a report for the Council which clearly demonstrated that responsibility for much of the poor performance and high costs associated with THH’s service delivery over the last few years could be laid at the door of senior THH management. The Chief Executive, Gavin Cansfield, has yet to provide a substantive response.
I see that Barry Simon’s home-made letterhead describes him as a ‘Housing and Regeneration Consultant’. Reports from SELA and other THH permanent staff indicate that one thing that THH could do with less of is ‘consultants’ and other ‘interim’ staff. Far too many good, experienced staff have been made redundant or pensioned off to make way for inexperienced, £1000-a-day ‘consultant’ types who turn out to be hopelessly ineffective in post, before – having pocketed a wad – they move on. This has been pointed out to Les Warren (Director of Finance and ‘Customer Services’) and Jamie Carswell (Director of Investment Services) at a number of public meetings, but again little in the way of response is received.
So overall, whatever our political leanings, we are pleased to see that at least one Councillor is questioning whether this restructure is in the best interests of the residents – and shame on the other councillors who are not.
Go and Join the facebook group to raise awareness of the upcoming and hugely important mayoral election.
Then share the link with all your Tower Hamlets friends!
https://www.facebook.com/groups/THamletsvotes/
Mike Johnson – Excellent article!
Barry Simons is hardly ‘highly respected.’ He was being investigated at Hammersmith for mismanagement and racism but took ‘early retirement’ so the investigation could not continue. He came out of ‘retirement’ and went to Newham where he was involved in a dispute over the sacking of the then CEO. The case was settled on a no blame basis out of court and Simons was replaced. Simons has also been a director of Pinnacle Consulting private consultancy group that has been controversially linked with the governance structure of THH.
As to THH, it recently admits to being an expensive organisation that delivers below average services. (This was highlighted by the Audit Commission as far back as 2010/11). The current restructure will be the fourth in as many years that has yielded nothing but higher costs. The fault is with higher management who design these changes but never get restructured themselves.
Services need to be better and charges lower but THH are trying to force through yet another restructure without proper consultation.
oh no, not the Pinnacle mob – again! At least we can vote councillors and mayors in and out, whereas social housing management in this country seems to be a complete cartel.
What I don’t understand is how few people have cottoned on to the fact that the THH management are so inept.
We have a Chief Executive whose smirking charm seems attractive the first time you encounter it but which becomes a little tedious and repetitive by the third time you’ve witnessed it (and who is seen wandering around the estates like some fading starlett hoping for residents to rush forth shouting his name).
As we can see on our estate now the Decent Homes programme, managed by another smirker, Jamie Carswell, is making the same basic mistakes in this third year that were pointed out to him in the first.
Les Warren (Director of Finance and Customer Services from South Africa) is an accountant, but must also be a member of Mensa since he manages to also be in charge of ICT, Health and Safety, Customer Services, Complaints, the Rent Service, Human Resources… and the Housing Service Centre. He doesn’t seem to smirk – he just looks blank all the time.
From the failings in finance shown by the SELA report and other audits, maybe time for Les to concentrate on the one job he supposedly has a qualification for, that is ‘accounts’. Maybe then our leasehold bills would start reversing in direction a little.
As for ‘Director of Neighbourhoods’ this weeks candidate is one Kevin Jones, though this job seems to have a revolving door. Many of us remember one of the first candidates for the job, Barbara Brownlee, who ended up taking half of the staff with her to Thurrock Housing. Alarm bells should have been ringing in the Mayor’s office at that point.
So, all in all a pretty uninspiring bunch. The one department that seems professional at THH is their publicity setup and I think their work on PR etc has managed to mask the poor performance of Cansfield and company for far too long. There’s an Open Door all right, but the problem is its letting far too many useless people get overpaid jobs at THH while decent staff leave in droves.
THH will tell you that ‘surveys show our performance is improving’ but as I’ve never met anybody who has received a call apart from repairs surveys I think their surveying setup is suspect also. Probably run inhouse or by a mate down the road.
Whether Biggs or Lutfur gets in next time they need to get rid of this lot. 30 years ago they would have been used car salesmen but in the crazy new world order of the millennium they are now in charge of the living arrangements of many decent people in this borough who deserve better.
Sorry Jay, and John, and Mike, but the Labour group don’t seem to agree with you – according to their Press Release:
“Totally unacceptable” that Cabinet Councillor bullied Tower Hamlets Homes Chair into resignation
Labour have today responded to allegations that bullying and inappropriate behaviour from independent Cabinet member Cllr Alibor Choudhury forced the resignation of respected Tower Hamlets Homes Chair Barry Simons. There are concerns that the circumstances of Simons’ departure will make it immeasurably harder to get a high quality replacement which is needed need to help shake up Tower Hamlets Homes….
Labour’s Candidate for Mayor of Tower Hamlets, John Biggs, said:
“Alibor Choudhury is Lutfur Rahman’s right hand man and his behaviour highlights a basic problem with the current leadership – intolerance, mistrust and not willing to be open and accountable. It is a disgraceful abuse of power we sadly know the current mayor will do nothing about.
“This will do nothing to encourage the brightest and best to come and work in Tower Hamlets. If I become mayor I will never tolerate this behaviour from anyone acting in my name.”
The Labour group doesn’t agree with what exactly? Simons’ letter does not accuse Alibor of bullying but says there was a difference of opinion. John Biggs’ summary of the situation is very accurate.
[…] Homes’ forced resignation following bullying from independent councillors is available at: https://trialbyjeory.wordpress.com/2014/01/12/spotlight-on-alibor-choudhury-and-how-he-caused-the-bos… – A copy of the Leaseholder motion passed at Council on the 22nd January 2014 is […]