Housing workers and tenants named and shamed landlords, photo William Muprhy/CC

Housing workers and tenants named and shamed landlords, photo William Muprhy/CC   (Click to enlarge: opens in new window)

Dressed in tuxedos, managers in social housing organisations arrived at the swanky Grosvenor House Hotel on Park Lane London on 1 May for a social housing ‘awards’ ceremony, no tenants invited!

They had paid as much as £3,250 for a ‘networking and hospitality’ table, while just yards away in Hyde Park, many homeless people prepared for another night without adequate food, shelter, or basic amenities.

As they entered a group of tenants and housing association workers reminded them of the sector’s failings and suggested better use could be made of tenants’ money.

Based on an online poll, ‘alternative awards’ were handed out for ‘terrible performance’, ‘poor repairs’ and ‘terrible treatment of staff’, including de-recognition of trade unions, and more besides.

The organisers, SHAC (social housing action campaign – a network of housing association and cooperative residents and workers) and the Unite housing branch, called for proper accountability for social landlords and a mass programme of council house building.