Item: ‘Secretary of State Michael Gove has written to the LBWF Chief Executive following a Housing Ombudsman report that finds LBWF guilty of severe maladministration in dealing with residents’ complaints’. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/660d22dcfb0f77001aec66f2/220324_-_letter_from_SoS_to_Waltham_Forest.pdf »
On 28 March 2024, The Times published the following story: ‘No leading lady worth that label in the golden age of Hollywood would have balked at being called “glamorous”. But Joan Crawford and Rita Hayworth were not slaving away in modern local authority offices, where, according to an employment tribunal judge, the term is “undermining” and “belittling”. The judge, Sophie Park, said that “in a business context … being described as glamorous is potentially inappropriate”. The word “could be taken as undermining or belittling the person being described, making them seem less serious and professional”. Jeniffer Campbell, a barrister and former beauty pageant winner, alleged tha... »
(cartoon courtesy of WOOX) It’s been widely reported that some Labour councillors are bragging about a supposed breakthrough in the local provision of ‘affordable housing’. Politicians habitually will trim to their advantage, obviously, but in truth this new claim is incomplete without careful contextualisation, as a glance at the data demonstrates. To start with, it is important to underline that, as previous posts have noted, the word ‘affordable’ is vague and often used confusingly, but what’s referred to as ‘affordable housing’ in fact encompasses housing let at four different rent levels, two, called Intermediate Rent and Affordable Rent, which aren’t really affordable at all, espe... »
At its February meeting, the Council approved ‘Mission Waltham Forest: our plan for a more equal borough’ (hereafter MWF), comprising a new ‘strategic ambition’ and ‘core purpose’, which is to make Waltham Forest a more equal borough by 2030, plus a new and ‘radical’ way of working, very much ‘a break from… business-as-usual’. In detail, MWF will focus council effort and resources on ten different priorities, six about ‘the issues that matter most to our residents’ (homes, health, access to services etc.), and four about ‘how we must transform how we work if we are to deliver on our vision for the borough’. Throughout, it is underlined, the emphasis will be on involving and listening t... »
Some of the choices that LBWF makes about the expenditure of public money are perplexing, to say the least. Consider first some recent history. Over the years, and when speaking publicly, leading Labour councillors have repeatedly insisted that dwindling central government funding is threatening the council’s financial stability. Yet behind the scenes, as this blog has revealed, these same leading Labour councillors have rubber stamped an extraordinary, certainly unprecedented, expansion in the number of senior Town Hall staff, with the latter increasing from 101 to 370 between 2015 and 2022 (the last year when figures are available) at a cost of at least £19m.. Now, with inflation and highe... »