Residents First

Right to Buy Roadshow returns

Back by popular demand! The Hammersmith & Fulham (H&F) Right to Buy Roadshow returns later this month.

Since the Right to Buy discount was increased from £16,000 to £75,000 in April, H&F Council has been inundated with interest from tenants keen to purchase their council home.

So far, more that 700 people have attended three Right to Buy Roadshows and more than 180 people have now applied to exercise their Right to Buy.

Two more free schools get go ahead

Two new free schools in Hammersmith & Fulham are among 102 new schools that were approved by the Department for Education on Friday (July 13).

A primary school for West London Free School (WLFS) in Hammersmith, and Church of England school, Fulham Boys’ School (FBS), have been given the green light to open from September 2013.

The news comes as WLFS – one of the first 24 free schools to be approved in the UK – nears the end of its first year. Toby Young, school governor and founding sponsor of WLFS, said: "It's fantastic news. Any child at the primary will automatically transfer to the secondary so in seven years time at least half the children entering the secondary will already have had an excellent education."

The expansion of WLFS will help meet the rapidly rising demand for primary places in the borough. The plan is to locate the primary school at Cambridge Grove, where the secondary school is currently based, providing an innovative ‘all-through’ school for children aged three to 19. The secondary school’s long term home will be Palingswick House, Hammersmith from September 2013, pending refurbishment.

Council demands HAFFTRA returns money to residents

Tenants could be collectively owed as much as £250,000 by the organisation that is supposed to represent their needs, according to Hammersmith & Fulham (H&F) Council.

Until this year, council tenants had been paying a total of £160,000 a year via the council to Hammersmith and Fulham Federation of Tenants and Residents Associations (HAFFTRA).

However, as part of the council’s work to improve the way that it engages with residents, its contract with HAFFTRA has been terminated. In its place, the council has set up a number of new residents forums that have already started to meet.

Now, from the latest version of HAFFTRA’s audited accounts, it has become evident that HAFFTRA is still holding almost £250,000 of residents’ money in its reserves.

Cllr Andrew Johnson, cabinet member for housing, said:

“I am appalled that an organisation that champions itself as protecting its members rights has actually held onto £250,000 of their hard-earned money. Instead of putting it back into the community and spending it on Tenants and Residents Associations, it seems that they have kept purely to spend on its own survival. This equates to approximately £20 per tenant which I am sure they would be grateful to receive.

“The council has asked for the money to be paid back but has had no response so far. Tenants should rest assured that we will be doing everything we possibly can to persuade HAFFTRA return this money to its rightful owners.”

The council terminated its contract with HAFFTRA after leading expert, Phil Morgan carried out an independent review on how the council engaged with tenants and leaseholders. He reported that ”the arrangements for the relationship with HAFFTRA on the Tenants Levy are outdated and no longer fit for purpose. There is no coverage of value for money for the levy.”