Letters Page

Following the article about Liverpool Housing Trust’s apparent mistreatment of an unfortunate Belvidere Road occupant, our reporter received an email from another tenant. Though she wishes to remain anonymous, her story highlights the growing scandal of housing in the Princes Park area. Her story should worry anyone in social housing. Click here to see the original article.

Dear Nerve,
I write in great concern after reading your ‘Bleak House’ article in April. I am a LHT tenant, and I have experienced very similar problems to Paula Smith. I also know of quite a few other cases.

In my building, all the tenants are living in squalor due to the negligence of repair and any attempt at decent housing on the part of the LHT. There is water entering the house through the roof, the walls and through ill-fitting windows, rising damp and mildew throughout the building, which reeks of damp and rot as one enters the front door, let alone any of the individual flats.

What I find difficult to manage is the constant emotional battering from landlords whose behaviour is reminiscent of every fascist organisation that has ever skulked mob handed round it is own filthy corners to stab the vulnerable in the back.

I still have to pay rent, council tax, water rates, utilities, contents insurance, television licence. If and when the works are done, many of my possessions have been destroyed either by the damp and rot themselves, or by carelessness on the part of contractors. My savings have long gone. I only receive pension and nothing else, but I’m not eligible for the warmer housing heating schemes as these are only available to people who can afford their own houses or private rentals.

What is LHT’s agenda here? I find it just staggering that people are living in this sort of squalor in 2005, and why is a firm of this size and with this amount of public funding telling untruths to its tenants to keep them in this squalor? This country has a fine tradition of telling other countries how to treat their citizens and would do well to look a little closer at it is own example.

The only thing I can think of is that these houses might already be ear-marked for demolition or for selling-off to property developers. ‘Bleak House’ is - after all - only round the corner from the Welsh Streets, now famously portrayed on ITV as being bulldozed by Pathfinders, and with a similar lack of honesty. Mr John Glester of Pathfinders told the presenter that there was no market for such properties these days and that the properties were selling for only a 2% mark-up. Indeed? How is it then that I have a friend who recently bought a house in the Welsh Streets for £55,000, the vendor having originally paid £5,000 only two years ago? At a recent Welsh Streets residents’ meeting, it transpired that Pathfinders were willing to go back into debate as to whether or not the programme for bulldozing should go ahead, probably because they are worried by bad publicity. Liverpool City Council has said it will go ahead and bulldoze anyway. Clearly someone closer to home is involved more minutely with the property developing aspect of things, and LHT work closely with the Council.

It would seem that there are parts of Princes Park itself which the Council are preparing to take over. Plots always disappearing from the park after citizens are told that ownership of that particular plot is “unclear”, which is strange considering that the park has been there since medieval times! I remember about a year ago attending a meeting for those with an interest in Liverpool community affairs. Lots of people were talking about the condition of the various parks, but every time Princes Park was mentioned, the enquirer was told to be quiet – the gentleman with the information had recently been appointed in charge of such things by the Council. He was so puce in the face with temper that eventually the questioner took pity on him and so the questioner remained silent rather than be asked to leave the meeting. Recently, the Council have published reports concerning parks refurbishment, they’ve been seen in the Liverpool Echo and in City magazine, with no reference at all to Princes Park.

I had a look at the map issued by Liverpool City Council for Princes Park regeneration. ‘Bleak House’ is on that map. The road involved, curiously, is not named on the accompanying paperwork, but the map shows it to be within the ‘regeneration’ area. At the other end of this road lives an elderly couple who have for many years invested their entire income into their own large Victorian town house. Worried by the possibility of being forced from their house, they asked if heritage grants were still available to help them bring their building into the condition being demanded in order to keep their home. Apparently heritage grants have already been discontinued and nobody at the Council could give them any further information on the situation or on whether or not any other grants were available.

I suppose we can all take a walk in the park. For the time being, at least.

Are you a concerned local social housing tenant? If you are thinking of setting-up a campaign, Nerve would like to report on your progress. Email: catalystmedia@mersinet.co.uk or phone 0151 709 9948.