Posts

‘Affordable housing’ in Waltham Forest: Labour councillors talk up their alleged achievements, but the data on completions is still dismal

March 18, 2024 Housing, LBWF spin

(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 le... »

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LBWF’s new core strategy, ‘Mission Waltham Forest: our plan for a more equal borough’: laudable response to austerity, or cynical political opportunism?

March 8, 2024 LBWF spin

 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 visi... »

LBWF is making 150 employees redundant, and imposing 105 separate spending cuts, but its long-term habit of appointing expensive senior staff apparently continues

February 23, 2024 Linzi Roberts-Egan, Redundancies, Senior staff pay

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 (... »

Private Eye reports LBWF’s mushrooming number of expensive senior staff, their failure to improve performance, and the redundancy programme that is the consequence

February 14, 2024 LBWF spin, Redundancies, Senior staff pay

From Private Eye, No. 1617, 16 Feb to 29 Feb. 2024 »

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Walthamstow community activist Charlie Edwards’ court case shows that, though LBWF has a legal duty to release to each resident the personal information it holds about them, it is still obstructive

February 9, 2024 Freedom of Information Act, LBWF spin, Mark Hynes

Some months ago, Walthamstow community activist Charlie Edwards lodged a claim for damages against LBWF because of the way it had handled a request for the personal information which it held about him, what’s known as a Subject Access Request (SAR), and earlier this week his case was heard at the Clerkenwell and Shoreditch County Court. The hearing started on a comical note.  LBWF was represented by barrister Douglas Scott of Six Pump Court (which describes itself as ‘Recognised nationally and internationally as one of the UK’s leading sets of Chambers’) and, while waiting to start, Mr. S... »

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Speed humps in Waltham Forest: new evidence shows that activists’ call for a review are perfectly reasonable

February 5, 2024 LBWF spin, Mini-Holland

It is pleasing to report that the campaign for a review of speed humps in Waltham Forest is progressing well, led by determined activists in partnership with the Chingford Residents Association, gaining support from local MP Sir Iain Duncan Smith, and currently attracting ministerial attention in the Department for Transport. However, barely a month passes without new questions arising about exactly what LBWF has been up to. Take the recent statement about speed humps that Deputy Leader and Cabinet Portfolio Member for Climate and Air Quality, Clyde Loakes, provided to the Sunday Tel... »

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The Housing Ombudsman makes three findings of severe maladministration in cases involving London Borough of Waltham Forest

February 1, 2024 Housing, Ombudsman

Taken direct from the Housing Ombudsman’s webpages, here https://www.housing-ombudsman.org.uk/2024/02/01/waltham-forest-council-failings-in-three-different-cases/ ‘The Housing Ombudsman has made 3 findings of severe maladministration in 3 cases involving Waltham Forest Council, including poor handling of a damp and mould case involving a vulnerable resident and another resident experiencing Anti-Social Behaviour (ASB) for 5 years. With the important role that social housing has to play in giving safe and secure housing to millions, the learning in these reports should hel... »

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LBWF Chief Executive Linzi Roberts-Egan orders a review of how the council handles residents’ requests for information, but the omens are not encouraging

January 24, 2024 Freedom of Information Act, LBWF spin, Mark Hynes

In a recent e-mail, LBWF Chief Executive Linzi Roberts-Egan tells me: ‘We are currently reviewing our FOI [Freedom of Information Act] and SAR [Subject Access Request] processes to ensure they are as effective and efficient as possible and that the errors identified in dealing with your FOI and SAR will be avoided in the future’. If this review is meaningful, then it will be welcomed. But as is always the case with LBWF, it is advisable to be cautious, because as the pertinent history indicates, fine words are one thing, fine actions quite another. To start with, it is notable that the designa... »

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EXCLUSIVE From 2015 to 2022 the number of senior staff in the Town Hall grew nearly fourfold, the cost of employing them did too, but service levels remained average

January 9, 2024 Cllr. Grace Williams, LBWF finance, LBWF spin, Senior staff pay

What follows looks in greater detail at an earlier post’s revelation (see links) that in the past few years, despite repeatedly complaining about government imposed cuts, LBWF in fact has spent millions more from the public purse appointing expensive senior staff.  To get a better handle on this surprising development, I have analysed the annual series which LBWF publishes about its senior staff (here defined as everyone from the chief executive, paid £217,762 p.a., through the different directors and heads, down to grade PO8, paid £50-55,000 p.a.), focusing particularly on the period 201... »

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LBWF embarks on staff redundancies but quietly admits that it’s allowed senior staff hires to mushroom, even as resident satisfaction with the council plummets

December 19, 2023 LBWF spin, Redundancies

LBWF never ceases to amaze. Take its current voluntary redundancy programme. Of course, the timing, just before Christmas, is deplorable, and says everything about how little the Town Hall leadership really cares for those who work for it. But putting that point aside, it’s very interesting to see how LBWF justifies itself.  Predictably, the story being spun for public consumption is that ‘the urgent need to address financial constraints’ stems from ‘reduced government funding, a challenging economic climate and escalating service demands’, in other words, ‘it’s nothing to do with u... »

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