Fury over office closures

By Helen Roxburgh

PLANS to close housing offices to save council money have provoked fury from tenants in Highbury.

The housing offices on Isledon Road, Highbury West, and Boleyn Road, Mildmay, are to be closed from March as part of a series of streamlining measures by Homes For Islington, who run the council’s housing. Funding to Homes For Islington, an Arms Length Management Organisation (ALMO) has been reduced by £11.4 million due to less council housing in the borough, with many homes now privately owned.

The offices are places for residents to make rent payments, report maintenance work and receive advice and support, and the Iseldon office, which serves the residents of the Harvist estate, had recently been renovated to allow full disabled access.

However, the nearest office to the estate will now be on Upper Street.

Homes For Islington defended the closure by saying they are going to improve the Upper Street office to cope with the extra workload.

“We will be enlarging the reception area in the Upper Street Office, simply because more people will be going there,” said Jon Farrant, senior Area Housing manager.

“Hopefully with an improvement in the IT systems, people will soon be able to go into any office and access their own important details,” he added.

However, the impending closure of these offices has caused anger amongst tenants’ associations in Islington.

At the Upper Street Area Housing Panel meeting this week, members of the panel and tenants refused to vote on the reallocation of residents’ Housing Panels, in protest over their lack of consulation.

Homes For Islington had proposed three alternatives to be voted on at the meeting, regarding how many housing associations should now be set up in each ward of the borough.

“If we chose either, it means by default that we have been consulted,” said Brian Potter, chair of the Federation of Islington Tenants’ Association (FITA) and the Upper Street Housing Panel. “So we won’t choose any at all.”

At the meeting, Mr Potter said that some tenants would now have to take three or four bus routes to get to their nearest housing offices, which could prove impossible for the elderly, disabled or those with young children.

Theresa Debono, Labour councillor for Highbury West, has also opposed the office closures.
She said: “Here again we go back to how they [Islington Council] try to save money, even when that situation is not necessary, because there is a need for these housing offices.”

Homes For Islington defended the closures, and said they had sent out 16,000 letters to those who would be affected by the office closure.

“People can expect to be visited in their homes if getting to the offices proves too difficult,” said Farrant. “I believe this to be the correct thing to do in the long term, the way forward.”

But many tenants remain unconvinced.

“This is privatisation through the back door,” said Mr Potter. “I think that’s the problem with Islington – the residents don’t get a say.”

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