Helping homeowners keep their homes

I am delighted that the Labour Government has made an extra £2.5 million funding available to ensure struggling homeowners get the help they need to avoid repossession.

The Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) have cited the comprehensive range of Government help, lower interest rates and greater lending tolerance and understanding as the key reasons why repossessions are running at half the rate of the last recession.

The Government has put in place a comprehensive range of support for struggling homeowners, and more that 330,000 homeowners have received help and advice with their mortgage in the last year alone.

I welcome the fact that the Government tightened the rules on lenders so that they must prove they have exhausted every possible option before seeking court action. Last year, the number of repossession court orders fell by a quarter - and every region of the country saw a fall in repossession court cases, including here in London.

Concerned homeowners can also call the National Debtline free on 0808 808 4000 for help and support.

Weekend casework

Here are some of the issues I've been working on sorting out this week. There are just two points I want to make about this. The first is that some of these are issues I reported last year - and which I got fixed but are now in a poor way again; and the second is that these are all problems in and around just one medium-sized estate: the Orchard estate in West Hill.

My point is this: just consider how many problems there must be throughout Putney, Roehampton and Southfields which your Conservative MP and councillors are just ignoring or can't be bothered to fix.

The Conservatives are right that 2010 needs to be a year of change: in Putney that change is Labour.


The pavements in Linstead Way are dreadful - and they've been dreadful for years under the Tories.





Damaged banisters in Linstead Way which leave these dangerous metal spokes in an area full of young families.


It just wouldn't be Tory Wandsworth without some shocking potholes - these on the slope from Beaumont Road to Linstead Way, past Andrew Reed House





Only last November I finally got the council to fix these railings along the path from Beaumont Road to Royal Orchard Close. They've been vandalised already - mainly because on one side this is a convenient cut-through to Linstead Way. So we either need more substantial railings or a designated, safe path with steps down the slope.


The bollards like those on the other side of this raised crossing by Castlecombe Drive have somehow vanished, leaving two craters in the Beaumont Road pavement.

Action on Alton Road...at last

Anyone even slightly familiar with Roehampton will be aware of the boarded up, dilapidated houses at the end of Alton Road by Roehampton Lane. They bear more than a passing resemblance, in this state, to the Bates Mansion in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho.

They've been derelict for years, slowly falling apart as parts and original features have been stripped from them and a collapsed roof has gradually allowed the buildings to rot from within.

The owners of these properties - a company registered in Jersey - has been trying to demolish these houses - two of the last reminders of what Roehampton was like before the Alton estate was built - and build a massive block of private flats in their place.

For once, the Conservative council has been on the right side of this overdevelopment battle and has been rejecting the developers' ideas - if not in principle at least in practice. And this has resulted in a stalemate: the developer refusing to return the homes to habitable use; the council refusing to give them carte blanche to build whatever they like there.

Well now that impasse is hopefully about to be broken. The Council will next week consider plans to compulsorily purchase the land from its current absentee owners and then sell it on to someone who wants to do right by this site.

I support the council's move on this if for no other reason than we need to break this stalemate and do something with this shabby, neglected part of Roehampton. But my strong preference is that the council actually restore these buildings using a tiny fraction of the millions they've recevied from council house sell-offs, convert them into self-contained two-bed flats and rent them out as new affordable homes for Roehampton families.

That's the best way to preserve Roehampton's heritage, return homes to housing people and revitalise this corner of our area.

Estate gardens

When a lot of estates were originally planned, right across the borough some were designed with garden areas adjacent to the blocks for those on upper floors who couldn't benefit from a backyard of their own.

This was an entirely laudable objective but, as we see above, it's not one that's worked very well in practice, broadly speaking. The picture above is of the gardens to Hascombe House in Dilton Gardens on the Alton estate, but there are examples right across Putney, Wandsworth and indeed London.

The problem, I think, is that these gardens were always exposed - they were never really private spaces that could only be accessed by the householder through their own property, but were plots of land right next to public space and never well-enough fenced or secured to make them vandal-proof or sufficiently private.

The result is as you see above: largely derelict plots, overgrown and flytipped: and what could have been some really useful space has become an eyesore.

There are two ways to resolve problems like this. Either we make an effort to revive these gardens as they were first intended, this time with decent fencing, secure locks and designated tenants responsible for them; or we turn them into proper communal space, landscaped or with facilities the residents can make use of.

The Conservatives, however, have taken the third way on this: just allow the rack and ruin of these gardens without taking any responsibility for them: the worst of all worlds.

It seems crazy to me that on estates where hundreds of residents have no access to gardens of their own, we lack the imagination and creativity to turn these plots into productive, useful spaces. There are huge waiting lists for allotments in Wandsworth and any number of ways we can find the manpower for the first big push that will get the land cleared up and fit for planting. One example I favour would be to use the community payback scheme to get minor offenders contributing productively to those areas they blighted with their criminality.

As I wrote on Sunday, we could allocate some of the money the council gets from all the filming that takes place on the Alton as a down-payment for the new fencing and security needed for these sites. But funding isn't the issue - every year the council carries over tens of thousands of pounds from minor estate improvement budgets meant for exactly this type of work.

No, what is needed is local leadership which, as I keep saying, is so evidently lacking from the Conservatives in Putney and Roehampton. Transforming this space meets so many goals: it smartens up our estates; it gives local people garden and recreation space; and it makes good use of derelict land.

Labour councillors will make this happen - a vote for the Conservatives gets you the sort of dereliction we see in Dilton Gardens.

Action, not words

On Monday I wrote about the issues I'd raised with the council on the Alton estate, which I'd picked up when my team visited the Ibsley Gardens and Diurford Crescent area over the weekend.

Here's the reply I've just received - simply to show that good local elected representatives can get these problems sorted out really easily: it's just that the Conservatives simply can't be bothered to.


-----Original Message-----
From: Tysome, Mike
Sent: 23 February 2010 15:17
Cc: Housing Directorate (Support)
Subject: FW: 40339 Ibsley Gardens, Fontley Way and Dilton Gardens issues


1. The fly tip has now been removed.

2. The pothole in Fontley way has been passed to colleagues in the Department of technical services.

3. I have contacted BT with the location of the damaged phone box.

4. The paving and the broken drain cover have been passed to a contractor and will be repaired shortly.

Regards
Mike Tysome
Chief Estate Services Manager

Weekend casework

These are some of the issues I've been taking up this weekend:



Roehampton Councillor candidate Sean Lawless documents a growing flytip in Ibsley Gardens just behind Fontley Way



One of the thousands of potholes due less to the recent icy weather and more to years of Conservative cuts to road repairs budgets - this one on Fontley Way



Sean Lawless shows how vandalised this phonebox in Ibsley Gardens has been - we've asked the council as managers of the estate to co-operate with BT in getting the window panes reinstalled.



And here uneven paving in Dilton Gardens by Durford Crescent has created pooling despite a drain being right next to the steps: it takes very little effort to fix this. It's relatively minor things like this, repeated hundreds and hundreds of times across the estate that make the Alton look so run down and neglected under the Conservatives.

Three steps to danger

These steps, all of which are loose - and when I say loose, I don't mean they wobble a bit - I mean that they are completely unanchored - lead up to and down from a block of sheltered housing flats for senior citizens in Burke Close on the Lennox estate.

Having such dangerous steps anywhere in the borough is unacceptable, but when they lead to homes for pensioners, and when the danger has been reported to the council several times - including by council employees who visit regularly, it's an even more appalling case of Conservative negligence that they are still in this state.

I've written to the Director of Housing urging him to get the steps repaired by this coming weekend - and if he can't do that to fence off the steps so that there is at least some way of alerting people to their danger.

If you think I'm being unduly harsh on the Conservative Council just consider whether you'd feel that way if it was your gran who had to use these steps on a daily basis.

Making Housing Associations accountable

A few weeks ago I wrote about the outrageous example of a major local housing association marketing a so-called "affordable" flat which requires its owner to enjoy an income in excess of £100,000.

It's just the latest example of two big housing problems in London: the abuse of the term affordable housing to include examples like this, where subsidised housing is being provided for those who simply shouldn't be eligible for it; and the utter lack of accountability of housing associations - which control increasingly large numbers of homes but which, unlike elected councils, don't have to justify their housing policies to anyone.

So I've written to the Housing Minister John Healey about this - and my letter is below. As soon as I have a reply I'll let you know.

What happens when the local press don't check their facts

A large amount of the stories local newspapers right across the country run with are initiated by press releases from their local council. There's absolutely nothing wrong with that - it's really important, in my view, that councillors are scrutinised, and issues councils deal with are often concerns that can animate local residents every bit as much as some national or international controversy.

But the key word here is scrutinised. Local councils do not issue neutral press releases: they will always attempt to talk up their achievements or present the view of whichever party controls the council. Again, there's nothing wrong with that - but it makes it all the more important that independent, impartial newspapers check their facts before rushing to print.

And here's what happens when they don't: the Wandsworth Guardian reporting the laughable claim from the Conservative council that "In a survey of London councils, Wandsworth's [housing] charges were found to be the capital?s lowest."

Now hold on a moment. Wandsworth charges the HIGHEST rents - by far - in the whole of London. That's not subjective opinion - it's objective fact, and it's really easy for anyone, especially a news reporter to check.

Here's the table of last year's rent figures, just to prove it - Wandsworth is the ONLY council charging more than £100 a week in rent:



And what makes it even worse is that there's no counter argument put - the Wandsworth Guardian has, almost verbatim, copied a Council press release without check, without counterbalance, without evidence.

London Mayor Boris Johnson recently criticised local councils like Wandsworth for the news-like publications they distribute such as Brightside, which has helped speed the collapse of local newspapers. But local newspapers must shoulder some of the blame if they can't be bothered to fact check or think for themselves, especially on something as easy to clarify or balance as this.

New rules on student digs will help the Alton

New rules introduced by our Labour Government will mean that landlords who want to let their home to more than three or more unrelated people will need to get planning permission.

This is a really important measure because, in Roehampton at least, it will help rebalance our community.

Here's the problem. After their first year in halls of residence, most Roehampton University students move into private rented homes principally on the Alton Estate but in surrounding areas, too.

If they were dispersed throughout the estate that wouldn't be a problem, but what has happened on the Alton is that student homes are concentrated in very specific parts of it - places like Sherfield Gardens, Laverstoke Gardens, Swanwick Close, Hersham Close and parts of Bessborough Road and Petersfield Rise, to name just a few of those with the highest numbers.

The problem is that these aren't student-only areas: students live side by side with long term residents. And inevitably there are conflicts between students, here for no more than a year (and without a long-term commitment to the estate), and residents for whom this is their permanent home.

Add to that different lifestyles: those of students enjoying their three or four years before the responsibilities of working life kick-in, set against those of families trying to get their kids (or themselves) to sleep while a party is going on next door.

It creates tensions. This new planning law Labour has introduced can help resolve those tensions simply by capping the number of homes in any given block or street that can be turned into HMOs (homes in multiple occupation) rather than being kept for families or individuals.

Now I hear the concerns of the NUS - expressed in the Evening Standard article from Friday - about forcing students into a ghetto - but on the Alton it would have the reverse effect. It would break up student "ghettos" - and in so doing those areas would become cleaner, better maintained and more cohesive - happier.

And that's what the Alton's lost these past two decades since Conservative right-to-buy legislation started going wrong - when those who had bought their council homes moved out and buy-to-let landlords took over, renting house after house on the estate to students (and others).

I think the way to rebuilding a strong community on the Alton is rebuilding balanced communities that have pride in their area. We don't get that if any particular part of the estate is dominated by those who are simply passing through with different, conflicting priorities to others.

We've got to start paying more attention to our planning laws - it's a theme I return to again and again, whether it is this issue, local planning overdevelopment or the need for a Plan for Putney - because the Conservative laissez-faire, do nothing approach to planning is wrecking those areas that need strong communities the most.

Is Minstead being decanted?

At the end of September last year I noticed that several of the bungalows in Minstead Gardens looked empty. When I asked the council whether this was deliberate or just coincidence, they denied that there was any problem with vacant properties in Minstead Gardens at all. Here's what they wrote in a reply of 5th October:

"The Hostels Team are responsible for the management of all the odd numbered properties at Minstead Gardens (a total of 16 units).

"There are currently four void units amongst the odd numbered properties at Minstead Gardens. I would like to confirm that the properties are not being decanted for any reason. These properties became vacant after each of the tenants was made an offer of permanent accommodation.

"Members of the Hostels Team visit the tenants living at Minstead Gardens each week to ensure they are occupying their properties.

"The average length of time a property is vacant before a new tenant moves in, is two to three weeks."

So two to three weeks from 5th October - by the end of that month in fact, you'd have thought the flats would be let, wouldn't you?

Fast forward to Sunday just past, 24th January. At least five properties - the exact same properties I wrote to the council about in September - are vacant. They're self-evidently empty - anyone walking past them will be able to tell which ones have no tenant. And I say "at least" because those are the five we called upon based on the current electoral register - electors who don't exist at these bungalows.

But there are huge gaps in the Minstead Gardens electoral register - something not entirely unsurprising given that hostel accommodation generally has a high turnover of residents - but something which also suggests that the number of vacant - or void - properties here is far higher.

It is widely acknowledged that Wandsworth has a very severe housing shortage. That several council properties have been standing empty for months is completely unacceptable. Either the Conservatives are deliberately keeping them empty, callously denying local people a home - or they're empty because of oversight or carelessness: and that speaks to incompetence.

The state of Edwyn House

This is a video one of my volunteers took a few days ago whilst delivering letters about my campaign to save the 28 bus. Edwyn House is the middle of the three Arndale estate blocks in Neville Gill Close. I've written regularly about my concerns about the condition the Conservative council keeps the Arndale, and this is just the latest example.

Litter-strewn stairwells, heaven-knows-what stuck to the ceiling, nazi graffiti, roof panels torn out and general neglect are all shown in the above film - and all things I report over and over and over again to the Conservative council - but who never act to sort out the problem long term.

As I've said before: the Conservative MP and Conservative councillors for the Arndale wouldn't dream of putting up with such disgusting conditions where they live - so why should residents of the Arndale have to?

It's one rule for the Conservatives and another for everyone else in Putney. And here's the difference a Labour vote makes: live-in caretakers for the Arndale who'll have a stake in keeping the area clean because they'll live there too.

Labour councillors who'll make regular inspections of the blocks - not just the Neville Gill Close blocks but Wentworth Court, Eliot Court and Sudbury House - so that they really are up to the standard residents should expect.

Far tougher action on those caught littering, defacing the buildings or vandalising the blocks - those responsible for this damage (or their parents) should get one warning, have the damage added to their rent, and if the problem persists face eviction.

And far more regular deep cleans of the blocks - simply because they house so many families that the amount of wear and tear each will experience is greater than other housing estates in the borough.

That's what electing me your local MP, and Matt Hay, Alex Lisinge and Tom Marsom as your local Labour councillors, will achieve.

More casework from the Alton

Sadly, the disgusting state of Harbridge Avenue yesterday wasn't the only problem I'm having to raise with the Conservative council today.

Similar problems of overflowing bin chambers and flytips at Portswood Place:



And a cleaning contractor that thinks just sweeping rubbish into a great heap and leaving it passes as acceptable cleanliness - also at Portswood Place (with the Methodist Church in the background):



A flytip on the corner of Minstead Gardens and Portswood Place:



And here several of the wooden bollards at the bottom end of Minstead Gardens have been damaged but heck, despite Minstead Gardens comprising sheltered housing for the elderly, why on earth fix the dangerous holes and loose paving the damage has caused - just stick a cone nearby and hope no-one injures themselves:



Another flytip in Minstead Gardens - at the top by Richmond Park. The Conservative jobsworths will say this isn't on their land. I guess it's ok to just leave this festering eyesore then?



And I'm not sure how long it's been since the council's out-of-town couldn't-care-less cleaning contractor cleared up the Sherfield Gardens verge along Danebury Avenue but aside from being littered from one end to the other, it also has been flytipped with a sofabed and a pinball machine:



Finally, to add to the Conservatives' collection of potholes, this one in Swanwick Close is about seven inches deep and a real hazard to anyone coming down the slope from Minstead Gardens or Chadwick Close - just one of several potholes in the vicinity, including at the bus stop by the bull sculpture:



The two posts from the Alton I've published today can be summarised in four simple words:

Conservatives: couldn't care less.

Harbridge Groundhog Day

You may recall that late last year I posted some of the photos my campaign team took of Harbridge Avenue: overflowing bins spilling their detritis all over the pavements; flooded pathways, potholes, grass verges torn up by vehicles driving over them to cut corners.

When I highlight issues like these, as you would expect I also take them up directly with the council and they replied on 12 December last year promising to...well, do not very much to improve this environment for residents.

And as a result, look what we found when we were in Harbridge again yesterday.

The grass verge even more damaged and rutted:



The road surface even more damaged and potholed - and take my word for it when I say I have six or seven other photos the entire length of Harbridge Avenue of pothole after pothole:



The completely unacceptable, envrionmental health-risk overflowing rubbish bins and flytips that go uncleared. The Conservatives helpfully tell us: "The Council's waste collection contractor, Biffa, are not contracted to collect overspill waste left on the floor." So either contract them to, or increase refuse collections so residents have no resort other than to flytip:



More examples from the other side of Harbridge:



And why can't the refuse bins be stored in the bin chambers? Because the bin chambers are almost as full of it as the Conservatives are:



Here, Peter Carpenter, one of Labour's Roehampton council candidates, highlights the fact that every single sapling planted in Harbridge Avenue has been vandalised. The answer: plant more mature trees that are far harder to destroy - don't just leave the support stakes forlornly where the saplings once stood:



...And another example of the tree vandalism:


Peter inspects the flytip which I've reported along with all the other problems listed here - and plenty others which I'll write about in a blog post this afternoon.



Elections are about choices. Roehampton can choose to continue with the Conservatives who leave their environment in this state and say it is beyond their ability to do anything to improve it. Conservatives who wouldn't dream of putting up with this where they live - but who think it's fine for council estate residents.

Or you can vote for change - vote for councillors who say: "This is disgusting and unacceptable - but it doesn't have to be like this."

A Labour vote will restore council caretakers to our estates - replacing the out-of-town, couldn't-care-less cleaning contractor the Tories keep rehiring. Labour councillors in Roehampton will work with me to invest in a respectable environment in places like Harbridge Avenue - because one thing's for sure: if the council can't be bothered to take care of an area, they're in no position whatsoever to lecture local people to do so.

Simply put: a Labour vote says: "enough's enough".

Why shared ownership IS NOT affordable housing

Thanks to a blog reader for pointing me in the direction of this advert on the Notting Hill Housing Trust website - which undelines the absolute lunacy of classifying shared ownership as "affordable" housing:



Shared ownership is a scheme that's supposed to help people on broadly average earnings to get themselves on the housing ladder. It's a great scheme that works well in parts of the country with average house prices, but here in South West London, the market value of a shared ownership property means that even a 25% stake is out of reach for anyone on anything like average earnings - even for London.

£100,000 is NOT an average earning; only something like 350,000 people earn £100,000 or more in the entire country. And I find it troubling that housing association is involved in marketing these sort of properties - not because there's anything wrong with earning that much money, but because that's simply not what housing associations were set up to do, which was to provide affordable housing for those on low and average earnings. Providing subsidised homes for the affluent appears to be what Notting Hill is now devoting its efforts to - and it's wrong.

Now Earls Court isn't Wandsworth, but there are plenty of similar schemes dotted around Putney and Wandsworth - Notting Hill, for example, manages the shared ownership section of Putney Wharf and the Riverside Quarter.

The Conservatives here in Wandsworth have got away with claiming that they're building affordable homes by permitting an insufficient fraction of new developments to be "shared ownership". Well, here's the proof - shared ownership is not affordable housing in this part of the world.

The only way to guarantee that those on anything like average earnings in Putney and Wandsworth - the people who teach our children, police our streets, nurse us when we're ill, put out our fires, and clean our streets among others - is to start focussing on affordable homes to rent, and to end the Tory stigma that there's anything wrong with renting a decent home.

When we say "campaigning all year round" we mean it!

Yesterday I was out and about in Roehampton with my campaign team, and despite the bitter weather we got a warm reception.

I was concerned about the council's neglect of the paths and roads on the estate, especially as the Alton was built on some pretty steep slopes. And even if you think it's understandable that not every path on the estate has been cleared of ice - as I do - it isn't acceptable that steps haven't, which ought to be a much more achievable aim for the housing department.

Plenty of new year casework to take up including the case of a council tenant whose window was smashed in a burglary last October and which the council still hasn't repaired.

I'm pictured discussing some of those issues with Sean Lawless who grew up on the Alton estate. Sean's been an important part of my campaign team since last spring and is an example of how my campaign is getting the local community involved - not just dumping outsiders on Roehampton as the Conservatives have a track record of doing.

Ashburton playpond is no more

I've just had this reply from the Housing Department about the now-famous "playpond" - the play area that flooded with rainwater last Autumn unbeknownst to the area's Conservative councillors who claim to patrol the area regularly.

"I am pleased to advise that the repairs to both the underground drainage and the play equipment are now complete. All that remains is for the cleaning contractor to jet wash a growth of moss from the safety surface, which cannot be done currently with the likelihood of freezing. The position is being monitored but the playground will remain locked in any event pending an improvement in the weather."

That's great - but of course the housing department also need to fix the dangerous play equipment that closed the play area in the first place. I hope they'll do so before the spring so that local kids on the Ashburton estate can again use the play equipment they deserve.

Why we need so many more affordable homes

I've just had the reply below from the Conservative-run council about a constituent. It's a typical reply about a typical overcrowding problem.

This is a family of four currently crammed into a 2 bedroom flat; a parent, an 11-year old girl, and 2 boys aged 5 and 3. The boys share one of the two bedrooms and the daughter has the other. The mother sleeps on the sofa in the living room.

Homes are awarded on a points system - points are awarded for things like overcrowding, quality of the accommodation and health issues. This is what the council says:

[They] joined our general needs queue (formerly known as the housing register) in October 2004 and [their] application has attracted a total of 125 points in the three bedroom category.

50 points reflect [their] lack of one bedroom and a further 75 medical points were awarded in February 2008 in consultation with the Council's Medical Adviser to take account of the families [sic] health problems insofar as they relate to [their] housing needs.

There are currently 175 other applicants ahead of your constituent with either greater housing/medical priority or an earlier registration date who should be given prior consideration for rehousing. At present, a total of 325 points are required to have a realistic chance of being offered a 3 bedroom accommodation within a foreseeable timescale.

So, we have a family that has already been on the waiting list for five years and they have less than half the points needed to have any chance of being rehoused. They have no prospect of getting the points needed to get close to this level of priority. And yet they are clearly in unsuitable accommodation.

As I say, this is a typical case I deal with week-in, week-out. It's not unique to Tory Wandsworth. Indeed, I've dealt with far worse overcrowding the Tories are failing to address. But Wandsworth's housing problems are so much worse because of deliberate, political decisions by the Conservatives.

It was a political decision by the Conservatives that disposed of half our council homes - 16,000 have been sold off since 1981. It was a political decision to refuse to build new affordable homes to rent. And it was a political decision to allow developers to avoid contributing decent numbers of affordable homes as site after site across Putney and Wandsworth so that the community shares some of the benefit of the massive profits they make. And this at the same time as the Conservatives have given the green light to these same developers to stack up massive skyscrapers hardly any local person wants or will be able to afford.

It's not good enough. Instead of dealing with one of the most important local issues - our housing crisis - the Conservatives have been responsible for making it immeasurably worse. And the consequence is that real families - like the one I've highlighted above, are crammed into poor accommodation.

It's certainly amoral. I'd say it's immoral. And it should be criminal.

Allbrook community action

Regenerate, the Roehampton charity that, among other things, organises the annual Roehampton Festival and provides plenty of activities for Alton teenagers to get involved with has just press-released an event they helped organise a few weeks ago in Allbrook House, the block above Roehampton Library:

"Regenerate, along with 2 local churches, joined the residents of Allbrook House, Roehampton for the first 'Love Allbrook House'day.

"Frustrated with the state of their block, the residents organised the day to scrub clean the walls, floors and ceilings of the lifts, lobby and 9 flights of stairs.

"With council plans to demolish the block withdrawn, the residents have fresh hope to make it a nicer place to live. Here are some quotes from residents:

'It?s been a great opportunity for everyone to get to know one another better'

'By working as a team we can make this block a better place. We should do this again every month!'

"Big up everyone for getting your hands dirty."

I'm a big fan of initiatives like this that help residents in what are too-often called "soulless" blocks get to know each other and thereby foster stronger communities.

But isn't the bigger issue that residents felt the need to deep clean their block because of the unacceptable state the Conservatives allow it to fall into repeatedly? Residents keep complaining about the low standards the Conservatives hold their cleaning contractors to but nothing ever changes.

It'c slear the Conservatives either can't or won't. That's why you need to change it yourselves - at the elections next year.

More on the Regenerate facebook page - why not become a fan? I am.

No excuse now

As the Evening Standard reported last week, councils like Wandsworth now have the power to take factors other than just pure housing need into account when allocating what's left of our local council house stock.

Need should always be one of the most important considerations in allocating housing, but the fact that it has been the sole concern has sent our council estates into a spiral of decline; increasing deprivation and entrenching poverty and social dysfunction.

That's not just a problem in itself - it's a problem that leads to deep resentment among those who've waited years - unsuccessfully - to be rehoused, have a high priority for getting moved, but have to watch as newer, more "needy" cases join the queue ahead of them.

As an example of this, I've been trying to get a family rehoused who are currently in a three bed flat but need a five, or at very least a four bed house. They have enough points that when I first got in touch on their behalf they were eleventh in line for rehousing. That should easily be enough to get rehoused as many more than 11 homes become vacant every year. But over a year on, when I last checked they were TWELTH; simply because new households determined to be in greater need keep being pushed in by the Conservatives ahead of them.

It's simply unfair. I'm not going to speculate on the worthiness of those more recent households getting preferential treatment becasue of their circumstances but what I do think is that such a household could spend a few months in a smaller-than-needed home while those who've waited much longer in such substandard housing get the size of home they need first.

It's why we in Labour changed the law to give councils like Tory Wandsworth the choice to place fairness at the heart of housing. And it's why we've also called locally for a "points escalator" that gives those on the waiting list extra points the longer they wait - which guarantees a home to everyone on the list sooner or later. That's a much fairer way.

But let's never forget that the reason we have housing waiting lists in the first place is because there aren't enough homes in Wandsworth - and the reason for that is because the Conservatives have sold off over half our homes locally: more than 32,000 in 1981, barely 16,000 today.

We need fairer allocations, but we need one heck of a lot more affordable homes as well.

Weekend casework keeps FLOODING in

My campaign was out in West Putney on Sunday, calling on residents of the Eastwood Estate: Aubyn Square and Toland Square off Roehampton Lane.

One of the blocks on Aubyn Square has been flooded, and again I have to ask whether Putney's Conservative MP or the three Conservative councillors for the estate would put up with living in such conditions? If they would not, why on earth do they expect council tenants and leaseholders to?

There were also the usual flytips and complaints about service charges and rents being too high: they are, especially for the poor service Putney's council estates get in return.

In the meantime, the Conservative-run council has replied about the grim state of the Alton last week - pointing out that the reason there was so much leaf mulch on the ground, making pavements slippery for pensioners and blocking up the drains - was because leaves that are wet are hard to clear up.

Here's a tip for the Conservatives: sweep them up before they get wet.

Weekend casework

Harbridge Avenue is constantly littered - made far worse by palladin bins being placed on the pavements which invites flytipping and animals to scatter waste all over the place.


Another feature of Harbridge Avenue is pathways that end in dead-ends like this on the corner of Ellisfield Drive; which also get flooded whenever it rains a little because there is no run-off.


More Harbridge Avenue palladins dumped on the pavement, surrounded by rubbish. Really unpleasant for the people who have to live here.

This is the junction of Harbridge Avenue with Ellisfield Drive: completely flooded on Sunday evening.


Chadwick Close is one of the relatively new developments where Roehampton Gate School used to be behind Danebury Avenue. And this is their refuse storage area - piled high with rubbish that has clearly not been emptied for weeks. What a health hazard!


These puddles - in Highcross Way (left) and Timsbury Walk (right) - exist because the drains beneath them are blocked solid by Conservative council neglect. In Timsbury Walk the puddles are right in front of residents' front gates - often flooding into their gardens; while in Highcross Way you can see how long it's been since this path has been swept.


A flytip in Timsbury Walk


This is the bottom of Danebury Avenue near Priory Lane - again, flooded after heavy but hardly extraordinary amounts of rain. And again, look at the leaf mulch which indicates how long it's been since basic street cleaning has been carried out here.


These are some of the photos my campaign team took over the weekend on the Alton Estate. Harbridge Avenue, in particular, is in a disgusting state - and sadly it's not that unusual for it to be.

In addition to the rubbish, potholes, unswept-up leaves that had turned to slippery mulch, bad paving and the other usual failings of the Conservative council, over the weekend we also saw the impact of blocked drains throughout the estate, unable to cope with the heavy but hardly unexceptional rain we all experienced on Sunday.

I'm on the case here - already, I've secured guarantees from the London & Quadrant Housing Association which is responsible for the piled-up refuse in Chadwick Close, to clear it today.

The problems the council are responsible for are going to be much harder to fix - not least because there is no interest - let alone leadership from the Conservatives to provide a decent environment for Alton residents to live in.

Harbridge Avenue is of a similar design to Sherfield Gardens, which I exposed the state of a few months ago. And it's in a similar - maybe even worse - state. Residents have been let down by the Conservatives for too long. It's time for action. It's time for change.

Orchard railings to be fixed

The railings off the path leading through to Royal Orchard Close in West Hill are finally to be fixed by the Conservative Council.

The Conservatives had been failing to repair the banister - which is the edge of a fairly steep slope down to Linstead Way - because they thought it was the responsibility of the housing association that manages Royal Orchard Close.

They were wrong in this case - it's always been the responsibility of the council - but what's more disturbing is that they were more than happy to sit back and allow dangerous and unsightly vandalism to persist, simply because they (wrongly) believed it was "nothing to do with us, guv".

I've been writing a lot about the state of Putney Bridge - and it's exactly the same attitude: washing their hands unless something can be proved beyond any doubt that they are responsible for it - that has led to the decay and erosion of one of our landmarks.

The Conservatives call this "the Wandsworth Way" - and I don't doubt it plays a part in keeping council tax low. What it doesn't do is get problems elected representatives exist to sort out sorted out. And that's one reason why the Conservatives' Wandsworth Way is the wrong way.