Asset transfer and stripping for the public good?

[megilleland]

The Guardian, Wednesday 15 October 2014

 

Protests disrupt property fair in London

 

Boris Johnson tells investors London is open for business, but organisers of Mipim conference are forced to close the gates

 

Mipim (see post 26 above) were holding a UK conference in London today, but it didn't go well - people getting hissed off. I also heard on UK Column today that a council meeting at Glastonbury had been disrupted by discontented locals. No idea what it was about.

[megilleland]

This takes asset stripping to a new level.

 

The Independent: Wednesday 15 October 2014

 

Judge blasts Southwark Council for evicting Sudanese tenant and destroying his possessions

 

High Court judge rules that housing officers entered a conspiracy to 'harm' refugee

 

Housing officers conspired to unlawfully evict a Sudanese refugee from his council flat and destroy his possessions, including memory sticks holding thousands of hours of work, before then covering up their wrongdoing, a judge has ruled.

 

The victim, who was granted British citizenship after fleeing Sudan’s civil war in 1985, was made homeless for a year and forced to sleep on the streets after officials acting for Southwark Borough Council entered his home while he attended a court hearing in April last year over rent arrears of £18 per week.

 

All his possessions, including his passport, credit cards, furniture and computer equipment containing several years of research and personal material, were removed on the day of the eviction and destroyed in a waste disposal facility.

 

In a swingeing ruling, a High Court judge found that housing officers entered into a conspiracy to “harm†the man, known only as AA, by securing his eviction from his flat in Peckham, south London, and then conceal their actions from investigators.

 

Judge Anthony Thornton QC said: “The various officers conspired to evict AA by unlawful means, to seize and destroy his possessions by unlawful means and to cause him harm and loss by evicting him and dispossessing him of his possessions.â€

 

In his own complaint, AA, who had sought £2.4m in damages, said he felt he had been “robbed of my dignity and pride†by the local authority.

 

Southwark, which is London’s largest social landlord with 40,000 properties, and which bills itself as providing a “great place†for its tenants to live, admitted that it had “got things very wrong†when dealing AA.

 

But the local authority refused to say whether three officials singled out for particular criticism - income officer Christiana Okwara, her line manager Brian Davis, and resident officer Johanna Ashley -  were still employed.

 

The decision to evict AA, who had been a council tenant for 23 years, and previously ran a charity helping children in Sudan, was the culmination of a lengthy process during which he had fallen into arrears on his rent due to an £18 shortfall between his housing benefit and the sum due to the local authority.

 

By the time of his eviction, which the council said followed multiple attempts to reach an arrangement to make up the deficit, AA owed £2,353 in unpaid rent.

 

The High Court ruled that by early 2013, Mr Davis and Ms Okwara had become determined to have AA removed from his flat and had a motive which was “eviction at all costsâ€.

 

Procedures for securing evictions, including obtaining permission from a judge to start proceedings, were not followed and a requirement that all flat clearances take place in the presence of two council officers was ignored, the judgment said.

 

Added to the fact that Ms Ashley knew AA’s possessions, which were of “incalculable and personal value†to him, were at risk of being destroyed, it was clear that the actions of the three officers made them liable for “misfeasance in public office†or the misuse or abuse of power, the court found.

 

Judge Thornton said: “They each acted with the intention of harming AA by evicting him when there were no reasonable grounds for evicting him and by arranging for his possessions to be seized and destroyed unlawfully.â€

 

Southwark Borough Council, which had originally offered AA £6,400 in compensation for the destruction of his belongings, said it had reached an out-of-court settlement with the man.

 

Councillor Richard Livingstone, a cabinet member for housing, said: “We realise we got things very wrong when dealing with this person and their possessions. We have apologised for any distress we may have caused. We acted swiftly and took strong disciplinary action against our staff when this came to our attention.â€

 

The council said it could not discuss the details of disciplinary action against individual staff.

 

Another caring council looking after its vunerable tenants

[dippyhippy]

"We realise we got things very wrong."

 

Could this possibly be the understatement of the year??

 

I am so glad this case has been brought before a court. Why the council can't confirm if the three involved in this sorry sags are still employed by the council is beyond me. If the court has said their actions make them  liable for misfeasance in a public office, then they surely should not still be there.

[megilleland]

Friday 17 October 2014 in Hereford Times News  by Bill Tanner

Three academy conversions cost council nearly £3 million

 

NEARLY £3 million was wiped from Herefordshire Council’s fixed assets by just three schools converting to academies over the 2013-14 financial year.

 

The previous year the conversion  of six schools to academies saw more than £19 million was written out of the council’s balance sheet as fixed asset disposals.

 

Five schools converted to academies in 2013-14: Barrs Court School, Mordiford C of E primary school, Burghill Community primary school, Marden primary school and St Thomas Cantilupe C of E primary school.

 

As a result of the last three schools converting to academies £2.65 million has been written out of the council’s balance sheet as fixed asset disposals.

 

Barrs Court School and Mordiford primary  had previously converted to Foundation status, so their assets had already been removed from the Balance Sheet in previous years.

 

Fairfield High School converted to an academy after the year end, its assets will  be removed from the balance sheet in 2014/15.

 

The net book value of the school’s land and buildings is £2.58 million as at the end of March this year.

 

Academies are publicly funded local schools that are independent of the council, responsible to, and funded directly by government.  (ie the public)

 

Freed from national restrictions such as the teachers’ pay and conditions documents, the national curriculum and Ofsted inspection requirements, academies receive additional top-up  funding to reflect their extra responsibilities which are no longer provided by the local authority.

 

As at the end of March this , the county had 26 academies with 8,612 pupils or 39% of the total pupil number.

 

With both foundation schools and academies, the ownership of the school land and  buildings is transferred from the council to the school by issuing a long-term lease at a  peppercorn rent.

 

The assets are removed from the balance sheet when the legal  agreement is completed.

 

Net assets on the council’s balance sheet total £127.7 million up from £79.7 million in 2012/13.

 

The £48 million improvement over the course of the year includes an increase in the value of long-term assets of £18 million and a reduction on the pensions liability of £28 million.

 

Falling net asset values had been a trend with a high of £187.4 million in March 2011 to a low of £79.7 million in March 2013.

 

The fall of £107.7 million was mostly due to the transfer of schools to academies and increasing pension liabilities.

 

And that's without the university buildings being transferred. Everyday now we hear that the council is flogging off something or other, and on the local radio today, councils are saying that we have to volunteer more to save further money. These councils seem to just want us to hand over our money, and if they are not going to provide some sort of service, the answer is do it yourself.

[Denise Lloyd]

I see Brockington has not come onto the market yet.  Volunteering is fine but when you have the feeling that the mickey is being taken you think again.

If some of HC/NHS/Fire Service high ups were prepared to sacrifice something say 10% of their pay it would not be such a bitter pill to swallow.  This country is being propped up by volunteers and charities. 

[megilleland]

I came across this on the council's development blog:

 

Property that the council owns

 

The council has created a database of property the council owns which they have made searchable in a number of ways. They have also made sure you can see the results on a map following a search under the headings:

 

Search by property name 

Search by parish 

Search by ward 

Search by classification

 

Why would you want to see our property?

There are several reasons but probably the most important one is that the council is a public body and that you, as citizens, have a right to understand what assets we hold and how we use them.

 

Yes, but not a right to know the decisions behind selling off assets below market value.

 

Sunday 1 March 2015 in Hereford Times Letters

 

Cynical move over council smallholdings

 

THE Cabinet has cynically pushed back the announcement of their decision to sell off Herefordshire Council's remaining smallholdings until after the May elections.

 

This is typical of the behaviour we have come to expect from this group of only seven people, who make decisions of huge consequence when 57 county councillors were actually elected to represent Herefordshire. This is not democracy.

 

It's Our County believes in maintaining our county's assets for the long-term benefit of the people of Herefordshire. We will keep the council farms, not just because they are essential in allowing young and new farmers an affordable entrance into the industry, but because we do not believe in stripping the council bare. Once an asset is gone, it is gone.

 

JOHN HARRINGTON Chairman, It's Our County, Nordan, Leominster

 

Maybe we should also ask how much these assets mentioned in the article concerning the New University are worth. These are the ones mentioned:

 

Today’s confirmation comes with a list of likely NMITE locations spread across the city centre including the Buttermarket, the old Odeon cinema, Maylord shopping centre and the former Chadds building.

 

Other sites so far are: The Bath Street offices, Bath Street car park, Gaol Street car park, Symonds Street car park, the Franklin Barnes building,  Blueschool House, the Robert Owen School, Hereford United football club,  space above High Town shops, Hereford Library and Museum, Kemble House, West Street car park, Bastion Mews, the old magistrates court, land behind the Courtyard, the Saracen’s Head, and Castle Green Pavilion.

 

If they are sold off who will benefit from any rental income - certainly not the council tax payer.

[Denise Lloyd]

Will they be sold at true market value or a job lot because of who is the buyer?  Gosh looking at the list that is a lot of Hereford City being given/sold over to the new Uni.  Am I alone in thinking this isn't such a good idea afterall.  They might as well chuck Brockington in as well that seems to be sticking a bit.  I would like to see that little lot put on a map of the city centre people would be very surprised at just how much it is.  There is nothing wrong with students but because they are students they will not be big spenders they will be getting free healthcare I don't think they pay council tax etc etc is this really such a good idea?   

[bobby47]

Well I'm pleased our Denise has said it first. I think the University is a deeply flawed idea, we are in no position to afford it and if this bloody Council are driving this scheme then, given what they've done thus far, chances are it'll all end up as a bucket of sludge.

Course, saying something like this is near heresy. Afterall, there's nothing wrong in Education, Education, Education. An entirely good thing as long as an economy is in a position to afford it, take advantage of it and use it to drive up the local and recycleable disposable income levels.

And therein lies our problem. We've the second lowest disposable income levels in the Country, we've little or no infra structure, no high paying and highly technical industrial manufacturing base, we've an economy driven by a vast lowly paid but highly expensive to maintain workforce, we've an over reliance upon the public sector and worse, all our kids are leaving and those that are staying put are being required by the Job Centre, or as they now like to think of themselves, Job Creators, to dumb down their qualifications and enable themselves to compete with the fruit puckers, the chicken pluckers and the car washers.

No! I think its a terrible idea driven by 'that's a good idea, let's run with that' and as is always the case, no real thought has gone into it. It's a gimmick and like Denise has stated, a few hundred youngsters ain't going to provide and wealth 'now'. And let's face it, it's the bloody 'now' we now need to deal with and scattering a bunch of youngsters all over the City with no hope at the end of their Course ain't going to help anyone other than the property developers and the landlords who continue to strip away the flesh upon our brittle economic bones.

[WirralPC]

All these things that they've given away, sold or plan to dispose of are the wealth gifted to all of us by the hard work of our ancestors. Our Great Grandparents, our Grandparents and our own Parents grafted hard to recover from the aftermath of the First and Second World Wars and they bequeathed all these things to us so that their descendants, us, could care for and add to the wealth that they created.

They never thought that all their work, all their achievements and their labour would benefit chancer's, asset stripping suits and a handful of well placed individuals who profited from being in the right place at the right time and knowing the right people.

When the Wars finished and the Governments of the day decided to provide our nation with a vast housing programme that would benefit all of us for generations to come, they'd roll in their graves to learn that all our social housing has been moreorless handed over to private companies who now manage these homes that were intended for us to have. Now they stand available for anyone who can tick the right box and worse, this huge property portfolio provides a lot of people with huge salaries all taken from the pot of wealth that we inherited.

The promise that was, 'it's been left in your care' has been replaced by an ethos of greed and entitlement taken by the few who have their hands on power and either give it away, sell it cheap or give some profiteer a lease of time that moreorless means, 'they now own it' and local people no longer matter.

 

And Chancellor of the Exchequer Osborne has just sold off Eurostar for a short term boost of a few hundred million - while placing a vital transport link into the hands of a profiteering business, with no scruples, propped up by greedy shareholders, on and on into the future.

 

To continue the wartime theme introduced so brilliantly by Bobby... Osborne, if thrust onto a battleground - where you have to dig deep into your reserves of courage and kill or be killed - would be the type of individual who shoots his oppo in the back and rifles his pockets before deserting to the enemy waving a cheque made out to "to whom it concerns".

 

It's written all over the hopeless, pathetic toff's face in that famous Bullingdon Club photo.

[megilleland]

Cabinet

Meeting date: 11 February 2016

Title of report: Corporate property strategy 2016 - 2020

Report by: Programme director growth

 

Recommendation(s)

THAT:

(a) the corporate property strategy 2016-2020 attached at appendix 1 be approved and used to guide the development and delivery of the property programme; and

 

(b) the acquisition of a 10 year lease of the property known as Elgar House, Holmer Road, Hereford, at an annual rent of £87k be approved.

 

A recent review of existing corporate accommodation arrangements identified that three properties currently occupied by children’s wellbeing services are no longer suitable for use as office accommodation. These properties are Bath Street (New Media Centre), nos 8 and 10 St. Owen’s Street (the wings either side of the town hall) and Moor House.

 

Asset stripping to fund new council premises and more money to be spent on ivory towers.