Kennington Park residents tell Kate Hoey of Hyde Southbank failures

I was invited along to a Tenants Association meeting on Kennington Park estate in the Oval last night. It was a packed and lively – at times angry – meeting. I counted at least 40 residents and almost all of them had grievances against housing association Hyde and privatised utility firm Thames Water.

Vauxhall Labour MP Kate Hoey was also there. Kate recounted how she had encouraged residents to abandon their council tenant status and transfer to Hyde as she believed it to be a “completely new way of getting tenants listened to” and “genuine local management”.

But this is not how tenants viewed it last night! The cleaning service was shoddy and haphazard. Hyde don’t even publish a rota of when the cleaning is supposed to be done. Despite this, Hyde’s service charges had shot up by 30-40% (from £80 a month to £116).

Other complaints centred on Hyde reneging on their promises at the time of privatisation. Cycle storage facilities had not been installed. Raised flower beds had been unplanted for two years. And Hyde had twice recently tried to sneak through the closing of their local office on the estate on Magee Street. But tenants felt that their complaints were ignored.

Privatisation was also under fire because Thames Water, which is carrying out very extensive (and long overdue) repair work on Kennington Oval, which had brought the water pressure on the estate so low that some had experienced no water after 9pm for weeks. Typically Hyde and Thames Water batted complaints back and forth, both denying responsibility.

And it is this that is at the heart of the problem on the privatised estates. Despite Hoey’s touching faith in the private sector restoring the rights of tenants, in reality they run roughshod over tenants. Hyde, Metropolitan and co. may be “not for profit” organisations, but they are legally obliged to make a “surplus” (i.e. profit!) and pay their managers and executives hundreds of thousands of pounds. And that comes from cutting corners, underpaying and overworking staff, charging excessive rents and service charges.

All the main parties support this rotten status quo. That is why I am standing to demand:

• ALMOs, TMOs, etc. to be taken back into council ownership and control

• A national repair and improve programme

• Freeze rents and charges – rent strike against rent hikes!

• Public housing to be managed by tenants