Memorandum submitted by Cambridge Housing
and Environmental Consultants (V14)
1.1 Cambridge Housing and Environmental
Consultants are experienced ex local authority officers, EHOs
and surveyors, who specialise in providing assistance to Local
Authorities. We are presently engaged by South Holland District
Council to provide policy guidance and enforcement in the private
sector housing market. From our knowledge and time spent in the
area we are very concerned about the activities of a small but
growing group of employment service agencies namely "gang
masters" in this community. These are often small companies
of one or two individuals with a turnover of £8.5 million.
1.2 Our concerns are:
(a) The housing of substantial numbers of
large numbers of guest workers of EU, non-EU, illegal immigrants,
and asylum seekers in overcrowded, insanitary and poorly managed
housing.
(b) The knock on effects to the Local Authority
Housing Allocations policy when the Council is faced with the
rehousing of these guest workers as a result of action being taken
to close these appalling properties using existing housing act
powers.
(c) The effects the housing of substantial
numbers of guest workers in large dilapidated commercial properties
has upon the local environment, relations with resident populations
in predominantly rural communities and the rising number of violent
incidents between these communities.
2.1 To give you some indication of conditions
on the ground and regularly encountered in the area in and around
Spalding I would cite some of the following examples. The actual
addresses have been omitted.
I. A small two-bedroom terrace house in private
residential area of Spalding housing 20 people of Chinese origin
with 10 people sharing each room on a shift basis. A fire had
recently taken place in the kitchen making the facility unusable.
The house was closed and the residents rightly made application
to the Housing Authority for rehousing.
II. A redundant shop in a busy shopping street
in the centre of Spalding housing 15 Portuguese and Brazilian
workers was found to have no washing, toilet or kitchen facilities.
Residents had to share what effectively was the old shop floor
with no sub-division to give any privacy. The property did not
have planning consent for its use and residents were housed in
the most primitive of conditions with no heating provided in the
middle of winter. As a result of joint action between the Home
Office Immigration Police and the local authority the property
was closed with some residents being returned to their home country.
III. A redundant coaching hotel in a small
village of 1,200 people to the north of Spalding was found to
be housing 65 workers in 10 bedrooms. The property had no kitchen
or heating and upwards of eight people were being housed in each
room. The 4-storey property had no fire warning system and the
fire escape access door was unopenable. There was imminent danger
to the residents and action was taken by the Fire Authority and
LA to remove the Fire Certificate and action taken to close the
property on this occasion voluntarily by the owners. The problem
resulting from the closure was the residents presenting themselves
to the LA as homeless.
2.2 In the same village other properties
were being used in a similar way including ex-Council houses and
three other large redundant commercial properties. In this one
village alone there were over 250 guest workers in a population
of 1,200 creating tensions and leading to an increase in the amount
of police manpower and time devoted to maintaining the peace.
These are a few examples in the next section
I will try to give some analysis and recommendations as to the
means by which the problem could be resolved.
3.1 Gangmasters contract to provide labour
to national and multi national firms operating in and around Spalding
at an agreed price. They are responsible for finding the workers,
housing them, paying them and carrying out all the fiscal requirements
set down by statute. The companies who hire the gangmasters in
the main operate an arms length approach to what happens on the
ground.
3.2 The gangmasters either purchase or lease
properties from other property owners and to ensure that heir
share of any profit is maintained place as many people as possible
in the property with total disregard to the requirements of the
planning housing or fire authority. This situation pertains for
as long as the gang master can effectively get away with it. When
faced with action from the local council the gangmaster will effectively
move the problem along to other property.
3.3 The current legislation is based upon
an assumption that most landlords have some regard to their rights
and responsibilities under the law. The law in respect protects
them by allowing preliminary notices to be served and guaranteeing
some protection in law by giving landlords the right of appeal
against legal notices. The gang masters are able to use this to
their advantage. The bureaucracy involved in trying to close unsanitary
accommodation makes this possible. Obviously one would want to
see the present protections in law maintained.
3.4 The gang masters exploit the fact that
where the LA closes a property the LA has a responsibility to
re-house the occupants. The LA who is always under pressure to
find accommodation for people on its waiting lists may shy away
from taking action to protect the health and safety of these people.
3.5 There are a number of agencies involved
in dealing with the problem usually acting separately with some
limited sharing of information.
In the climate described the gang master is
able to exploit their employees who have no voice or and limited
rights in law.
3.6 There are companies who provide employment
services who do provide this within the law and to a reasonable
and humane standard and I assume profitably. There are large national
and multi national companies who employ these more responsible
employment service companies to provide labour.
3.7 Many of the large retailers purchase
large quantities of commodities from the farms and factories in
eastern England who establish very detailed specifications as
to the way in which the product is provided and who carry out
detailed audits of these plants. The employment and housing of
guest workers could be controlled through some form of self-regulation
or Accreditation initiatives. The national retailers have enormous
financial clout and could ensure that their audits and product
specification are drafted to include employment and housing of
migrant workers. The Government is in regular discussion with
these organisations and direct or indirect pressure to address
these questions.
4. RECOMMENDATIONS
The following recommendations are listed
to bring about improvement in the current situation:
4.1 The Government should use its persuasive
powers to bear upon the major national retailers and suppliers
to bring about change in the way that guest workers are employed
and housed The Government is in regular discussion with these
organisations and direct or indirect pressure to address these
questions.
To this end the Government should consider producing
some draft minimum standards for housing guest workers which companies
could adopt and require their clients to maintain as part of a
contract. This form of self-policing would offer the most immediate
prospect of improvement and would remove the most unscrupulous
of the gang masters.
4.2 To deal with those that escape the net
a multi agency approach should be adopted formalising the hit
and miss type relationships that currently exist between the enforcement
agencies to control the various unlawful activities of gang masters.
The Government could draft a Best Practice guideline to various
enforcement agencies with a directive requiring that a multi disciplinary
group be set up on a county wide basis to address the situation.
4.3 Make amendments to the current housing
act laws which affect multi occupied property. Where there is
severe overcrowding and an imminent danger to health and safety
the LA would be given the powers of emergency closure in these
circumstances. This is probably unworkable in the current parliamentary
timetable but could be considered for the future.
A great deal of knowledge and experience in
this work has been accumulated and could be brought to the attention
of local authorities by running seminars.
These are the views of my consultants who
have been actively involved on a practical level in trying to
bring this sector of housing up to a reasonable standard. My company
would be happy to assist the Committee in any way in the future
recognising the challenges it faces.
Cambridge Housing and Environmental Consultants
3 June 2003
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