Mill Investigation: Riverside Housing says it provides good quality, safe housing for thousands of people. That’s not what we found when we visited its tenants.
Dec 21, 2023Liked by Jack Dulhanty, Sophie Atkinson
This is just a human tragedy, isn't it? The entire British housing market feels like an array of tragedies, from lesser to greater. These are definitely the greater end of that spectrum; housing that people simply should not be living in, support systems that flatly don't work, a lack of voice for the people trapped there, and people losing their health and peace of mind to these troubles. It bothers me that Riverside seem just not to get it; the boiler plate replies, the shoddy workmanship, the constant back and forth. But then again, that's the lot of so many folks in our housing market today - no-one cares, the voices heard are not theirs.
We have a housing market that privileges growing investment returns and preserving asset values over actually functionally connecting people to good homes. There's a lot of levers to pull which will, either directly or indirectly, change things for the people trapped in its many-sided failures. The two I'd highlight would be properly funding local government (not just to deliver council homes, but also to deliver regulatory functions effectively; more inspections, more prosecutions), and actually building homes at a pace that allows us to bring down rents and house prices, consistently, until their ratio with earnings is back to what it was in the post-war period. Giving people regulatory protection -and- meaningful ability to choose will go a long way to making sure that organisations like Riverside either improve, or get replaced by something better. Either way, we just need to get on with it - to stop letting the same people (existing homeowners, largely) constantly get in the way of opening the taps of supply, and fitting out local government to deliver what we need it too.
If you look at Riverside's twitter feed you'll see - anti-slavery, county lines, carers' rights, veterans' mental health, safeguarding, remembrance day, webinar on tenant satisfaction measures, world mental health day, dance and gardening projects, co-production, energy bills...
Some of that's really important, but when they can't get the absolute basics right - like safe and healthy homes, and treating people (not customers) with care and respect - it looks very much like they've taken their eyes off the ball.
As GMTU have described them - distant, distracted and uncaring.
And how have Rochdale Council let all this slide for years?
Many thanks for this report and bringing these very serious issues to our attention. In the past I have worked with, and for, Riverside, Evolve, and Rochdale Boroughwide Housing and find it deeply disappointing that their standards of care and attention for their Tenants have fallen to these shockingly low levels.
This is just a human tragedy, isn't it? The entire British housing market feels like an array of tragedies, from lesser to greater. These are definitely the greater end of that spectrum; housing that people simply should not be living in, support systems that flatly don't work, a lack of voice for the people trapped there, and people losing their health and peace of mind to these troubles. It bothers me that Riverside seem just not to get it; the boiler plate replies, the shoddy workmanship, the constant back and forth. But then again, that's the lot of so many folks in our housing market today - no-one cares, the voices heard are not theirs.
We have a housing market that privileges growing investment returns and preserving asset values over actually functionally connecting people to good homes. There's a lot of levers to pull which will, either directly or indirectly, change things for the people trapped in its many-sided failures. The two I'd highlight would be properly funding local government (not just to deliver council homes, but also to deliver regulatory functions effectively; more inspections, more prosecutions), and actually building homes at a pace that allows us to bring down rents and house prices, consistently, until their ratio with earnings is back to what it was in the post-war period. Giving people regulatory protection -and- meaningful ability to choose will go a long way to making sure that organisations like Riverside either improve, or get replaced by something better. Either way, we just need to get on with it - to stop letting the same people (existing homeowners, largely) constantly get in the way of opening the taps of supply, and fitting out local government to deliver what we need it too.
If you look at Riverside's twitter feed you'll see - anti-slavery, county lines, carers' rights, veterans' mental health, safeguarding, remembrance day, webinar on tenant satisfaction measures, world mental health day, dance and gardening projects, co-production, energy bills...
Some of that's really important, but when they can't get the absolute basics right - like safe and healthy homes, and treating people (not customers) with care and respect - it looks very much like they've taken their eyes off the ball.
As GMTU have described them - distant, distracted and uncaring.
And how have Rochdale Council let all this slide for years?
Many thanks for this report and bringing these very serious issues to our attention. In the past I have worked with, and for, Riverside, Evolve, and Rochdale Boroughwide Housing and find it deeply disappointing that their standards of care and attention for their Tenants have fallen to these shockingly low levels.