Examination of Witnesses (Question Number
39)
MR NIGEL
LONG, MR
MICHAEL GELLING
OBE AND MS
TRISH CANHAM
26 OCTOBER 2009
Q39 Chair: Same rules as before, do not
feel obliged for each of you to answer every question, otherwise
we will never cover the ground, and it is up to you to kind of
volunteer, but if I think somebody is hogging it, I will obviously
intervene. The first question really is about whether, from your
point of view, you think that tenants are being kept informed
about and involved in plans to manage the Decent Homes backlog
after 2010.
Mr Gelling: I would just like
to say, in opening, Decent Homes has been a great success for
promoting tenants' involvement and engagement, and Decent Homes
has triggered ALMOs to improve management. Some of the most successful
ALMOs are tenant led, for example Cora Carter, my secretary at
Kirklees; Alf Chandler, the previous chair of TAROE from Hounslow
Homes; and Juliet Rawlings, of course, from Kensington and Chelsea
TMO, the best formal tenant management organisation that there
has been in this country, in my opinion, but that is just me.
All have improved their services and management, most have extended
the Decent Homes programme to encompass worklessness, for example
Nottingham City Homes, chaired by Janet Storar, a tenant, has
a programme of One in a Million, so for every million pounds that
is invested into a contractor, a trainee apprentice has to be
taken on and employed. Currently, there are 200 new apprenticeships,
so far 40 have been taken on, covering plumbing, plastering and
electrics, joinery et cetera.
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