Complaint to RBKC – North Kensington Library

The Grenfell Action Group blog dated 27th Febuary 2016 drew attention to RBKC plans to lease our much loved Public Library in North Kensington to the Notting Hill Prep School. Our blog highlighted our four main areas of concern namely, the loss of another public community asset to the private sector, whether the RBKC had obtained ‘best value’ without a tendering process, the lack of transparency in negotiations between the Council and the Notting Hill Prep School and concerns that the proposed new library and youth centre complex might not be fit for purpose.

https://grenfellactiongroup.wordpress.com/2016/02/27/what-future-for-north-kensington-library/

When we published our blog we were unaware that the RBKC Housing and Property Scrutiny Committee, at its meeting on 6th January, had expressed serious concerns about the process by which the decision had been made to lease the Grade II listed library building. When we discovered this we realised it gave added weight to the concerns we had already expressed that the proper tendering process had not been followed, so we decided to draw our readers attention to the minutes of the Housing and Property Scrutiny Committee meeting on 6th January.  According to the minutes;

“The Chairman asked about the process that had led to the award of the lease for North Kensington Library and asked if Corporate Property were certain it had provided best value. Mr Clark (from Corporate Property Services) explained the process taken which had been agreed by the Cabinet. The Chairman queried why the same open tender process that had been used for the Isaac Newton Centre had not been used in this case.

The Committee expressed concerns that an open, competitive process had not been followed in this case. Cllr Mackover said that when looking at the process through the eyes of a tax payer the test for best value would hinge on an open tender process that showed the highest bidder or offer received. He said that there had not been a test in this instance that could be evaluated. Mr Clark explained that a significant premium had been agreed with NHP and that the base value and the premium was supported by an independent valuer and local agent.

The Committee expressed dissatisfaction with the process that had been followed and the Chairman asked that the Key Decision stage be investigated and called-in if possible.”

Bearing in mind the level of concern demonstrated by the Scrutiny Committee and the fact that the Chairman of the Committee had asked for the Key Decision stage to be investigated, with a view to ‘calling in’ the decision, we felt fully vindicated in sending the following complaint to Nicholas Holgate, the Chief Executive and Town Clerk of RBKC, outlining our own concerns regarding the tendering process:

“Dear Mr Holgate,

We are writing to you in your role as Chief Executive of Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea as I wish to launch an official complaint against the Council.

We are contacting you following an article on the Grenfell Action Group’s blog that highlighted concerns about the future of the North Kensington Library and the manner in which the lease has been granted to Notting Hill Prep School that appears most irregular.

https://grenfellactiongroup.wordpress.com/2016/02/27/what-future-for-north-kensington-library/

Our complaint concerns the fact that there seems to have been a general lack of transparency surrounding the decision to award the lease of North Kensington Library to Notting Hill Prep that shows no sign of any open competitive tendering process.

It is not possible for us to understand how the Council can claim to have obtained ‘best value’ without opening the bidding process up to open competitive tendering in an attempt to secure ‘best value’.

We wish to make an official complaint against Corporate Property at the Council and ask RBKC to investigate why there was no competitive tendering process involved in the awarding of the lease our much loved library to Notting Hill Prep School.

if we are not satisfied with the response that we receive from RBKC concerning this matter we reserve the right to further these concerns to the Local Government Ombudsman.

Regards…”

The Grenfell Action Group can assure the Council we will not let this matter rest until we receive a transparent and clear explanation from RBKC as to why they did not engage with an open tendering process regarding the lease of North Kensington Library. At the moment, it looks to us very much like a private deal was agreed between the Council and Notting Hill Prep School to the exclusion of any other possible interested party. This seems a strange way to conduct business when ‘best value’ is the leglistiative yardstick.

Social Cleansing – The RBKC Housing Waiting List

We recently acquired a copy of a letter from the Housing and Homelessness Assessment Team at RBKC which we have reproduced in full below. We understand that versions of this letter are being routinely sent to some of the most vulnerable people in temporary accomodation on the Council waiting list. This letter signals a change from what used to be a voluntary programme, the Private Rented Access Scheme, to a mandatory policy targetting those who qualified for the housing waiting list after 8th November 2012.

As far as we have been able to determine the Private Rented Access Scheme (PRAS) has been piloted in RBKC on a voluntary basis since November 2012, but the power to enforce it as a mandatory policy has also existed since the Localism Act came into force at that time. It seems that the Council has now decided to end the voluntary scheme for all those who qualified since the Localism Act came into force and to fully implement the powers granted under the Act to force those assessed since 2012 into private accommodation.

https://www.rbkc.gov.uk/pdf/Discharge of duty into the private rented sector policy Sept 2014.pdf

Under the voluntary PRAS programme those who have qualified for social housing and are living in temporary accommodation receive a £3,000 bribe/incentive if they opt to move into private rented accommodation which they must find for themselves. Given the grossly inflated rent levels in London this will most likely be outside of London, with no realistic prospect of ever returning. However, under the pernicious new mandatory policy those found to be in priority need since November 2012 will instead be made a single offer of accommodation in the private rented sector. This can be anywhere in the UK.  Those targetted will have no say about where they will be sent, and once the offer has been made the Council will be considered to have fully discharged its duty and will have no further responsibility to house them, regardless of whether the offer is accepted or rejected.

In this ruthless policy change RBKC has resorted to the most base of tactics and the cruelest of legislation in order to socially cleanse our once tolerant and diverse borough of some of its most vulnerable residents, and there is no guarantee that the mandatory policy will not be extended, at some future time, to include all on the housing waiting list. Indeed, in a policy statement from 2014 (Discharge of duty into the private rented sector) the Council states that it intends to fully discharge its duty to house the vulnerable by way of ‘Private Rented Sector Offers’ (PRSO) and anticipates that eventually the majority of qualifying households will have their entitlement ended by a PRSO.

 

Given the powers granted under the Localism Act, soon to be followed by the Housing and Planning Act which will decimate the social housing stock that has, over many years, been massively depleted by the Right-to-Buy programme, one can only conclude that the neo-cons at Westminster and in Hornton Street have no qualms about completely destroying working class communities, and implementing an evil policy of social cleansing that includes forcing the most vulnerable families, many of whom may have lived locally for generations, into permanent exile far from London.

We in the Grenfell Action Group are disgusted, but not surprised, that those who have power, both at Westminster and in RBKC, choose to act in such a cruel and ruthless manner, seeking to socially cleanse many of our most vulnerable residents who are unfortunate enough to be stuck on social housing waiting lists. In times such as these we believe our readers would do well to remember the immortal words of the dissident Pastor Martin Niemöller, who lived in Hitler’s Germany during the Nazi era;

First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak for me.

STOP THE HOUSING BILL – PETITION

https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/stop-the-housing-bill

COURT VICTORY FOR ‘OUR HOUSE’

OUR HOUSE activists squatting in a Knightsbridge property to protest the Housing Bill won an important victory in court on Friday morning! A judge refused to grant a Possession Order to Brompton Estates and the hearing was adjourned until Tuesday!

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/pop-up-squat-activists-occupy-knightsbridge-property-to-protest-housing-bill-a6922766.html

https://www.facebook.com/radicalhousingnetwork

“We are legally occupying this space here, in an area that we probably wouldn’t be able to afford ourselves in a commercial way, in order to draw attention to the local community,” explained Edward Daffarn, who is part of the group.

Come to OUR HOUSE pop-up community centre;

221 Brompton Road, Kensington, SW3 3EJ

You can also read and share the #Standard Evening Future Edition to see how the Housing Bill will affect Londoners in the future: standardevening.com

In the past, the property hosted several different pop-up shops over the years, but recently it had been vacant – until last week. Now, by day, activists host a variety of workshops, talks and performances aimed at educating Londoners about their housing rights. And by night, approximately five to ten people sleep in the space to ensure that it remains in their control.

The ‘pop-up squat,’ named in reference to the space’s former use, was launched ahead of this weekend’s ‘Kill the Housing Bill’ demonstration that will take place in central London and is supported by a number of politicians, including Jeremy Corbyn.

The ‘Kill the Bill’ campaign is supported by Defend Council Housing, Kirklees Federation of Tenants, Camden Assembly of Tenants, Tower Hamlets Tenants Federation, National Bargee Travellers Association, Radical Housing Network, GMB, Unison, Bakers Food and Allied Workers unions, NUT London Teachers Housing Campaign, Unison Camden LG, Cambridge City and other branches, Unite Housing Workers, the Green Party, Jeremy Corbyn MP, John McDonnell MP, London Gypsy Traveller Unit, Islington Hands Off Our Public Services, Islington Private Tenants, Hackney and Waltham Forest Trades Councils, Leeds Hands Off Our Homes, Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers, The Morning Star, Architects for Social Housing, Westway23, Grenfell Action Group….and many others!

BE THERE OR BE NOWHERE!

ROCKY – YOU’VE BEEN MELLENED!

On Monday 7th March members of the Grenfell Action Group and the Radical Housing Network targeted the home of Cllr Rock Feilding-Mellen and executed a mock eviction  of RBKC’s despised Cabinet Member for Housing, Property and REGENERATION.

We are hoping that this is a model of political protest that might spread across different London Boroughs’ in an attempt to hold Councillors to direct account when they refuse to listen to the voices of local communities and instead take decisions that favour spiv property developers and their bankster friends.

We are concerned that Cllr Feilding-Mellen thinks that it is acceptable to buy a property in the heart of a working class community in North Kensington and then proceed to make it publicly known that he believes that only people with enough money should be able to live in the richest borough in the universe.

In order to achieve his fascist goals we believe that Cllr Feilding-Mellen is setting about eradicating social housing in RBKC and pursuing an evil policy of social cleansing that will bring much misery to local people and will, no doubt, greatly increase the value of his own house as he sets about his mission of gentrifying Notting Dale and driving out the poor.

We believe that Cllr Feilding-Mellen has made a grave misjudgment if he thinks that he can act like the Lord of the Manor, living safely and securely in his private residence in Bramley Road, as he looks down his nose and oversees the mass destruction of his neighbours homes and the uprooting of existing and settled communities on the Silchester Estate just a hundred yards away!

The Grenfell Action Group can assure Cllr Feilding-Mellen of one thing – we will not let him take advantage of us and wantonly vandalise our communities without opposing him and his policies all the way.

HOMES FOR PEOPLE NOT FOR PROFIT

SOCIAL HOUSING WIPEOUT IN RBKC

According to an article published in the Independent in September last year Government plans to extend the Right to Buy scheme mean local authorities may be forced to sell off 113,000 council homes, a move that would mean Kensington and Chelsea Council may be forced to dispose of a staggering 97% of their housing stock. A similar article appeared in the Guardian the following day.

Both articles draw heavily on a study conducted by housing charity ‘Shelter’ which explores the history of Right to Buy, highlighting the continuing failure to reprovide social housing lost through this programme. Both articles focus particularly on the likely effects of the extension of Right to Buy to 1.3 million housing association tenants under the provisions of the new Housing Bill. In future local authorities will be forced to sell all vacant council homes that are worth more than a set threshold to fund discounts of up to £100,000 for housing association tenants taking up the Right to Buy.

Read the full story here:

http://blog.shelter.org.uk/2015/03/right-to-buy-one-to-one-replacement-falling-short-in-london/

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/right-to-buy-kensington-and-chelsea-council-may-lose-97-of-its-homes-under-new-plans-10504637.html

http://www.theguardian.com/money/2015/sep/17/113000-council-homes-to-be-sold-to-pay-for-right-to-buy-shelter