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Lambeth Council Watch - news and updates about the 'co-operative' council

editor said:
She really is proving to be a bloody great MP. Where was the rest of Lambeth's MPs?

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Streatham MP Bell Ribeiro-Addy joins free travel campaigners in Parliament Square, Fri 18th Sept 2020

The ever-busy MP for Streatham, Bell Ribeiro-Addy, today joined campaigners in Parliament Square in central London in support of their Don’t Zap the Zip campaign, demanding the retention of free bu…
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Good for her. This idea is going to cost families with school age kids a fortune. If it happens, Sadiq and the Labour Party are going to have to do an awful lot more to make it clear that it’s not them behind it
 
Caroline Pigeon AM keeps pointing out that the opposition Tories in the Welsh Senedd support free travel for U18s yet their London colleagues do not. Which makes me think its largely a London Tory plot to make Khan look weak.

Speaking of which, apparently the government is going to have to bail out renationalise more rail oeprators this weekend so I wonder if TfL will also need to go back to beg for more porridgetoo
 
BusLanes said:
Caroline Pigeon AM keeps pointing out that the opposition Tories in the Welsh Senedd support free travel for U18s yet their London colleagues do not. Which makes me think its largely a London Tory plot to make Khan look weak.

Speaking of which, apparently the government is going to have to bail out renationalise more rail oeprators this weekend so I wonder if TfL will also need to go back to beg for more porridgetoo
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From what Ive read this Boris government is sympathetic to plight of private railway companies.

When it comes to TFL/ Khan its treating them like Thatcher did to state owned companies.

Boris government is from the right of the party.

They hate TFL as to them its old school interferance in the market by socialist led local government.
 
editor said:
Great stuff! 😂

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Confusion at Lambeth meeting to decide on Windrush Square bollards as Labour Cllr admits she hadn’t read the report and thought she was at a training session

There was confusion at the end of the Extraordinary Corporate Committee meeting at Lambeth Council on Wednesday evening when one of the Councillors admitted that she thought she was attending a tra…
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What a farce.

I thought the Green Cllr made a good point. Why not plant tress.
 
Lambeth news:

Homes for Lambeth announce new leadership team for Group Board

Following an open and competitive recruitment process, Caroline Pillay has been appointed as the new
Chair of Homes For Lambeth (HFL) Group, the housing delivery company, wholly owned by Lambeth
Council.

Caroline will be taking on this crucial role at an exciting time for HFL, following Richard Reynolds’ decision
to step down earlier this year. At the same time, current HFL Board member, David Gannicott, is stepping
into the newly-formed role of Vice-Chair of HFL Group.

Caroline Pillay said:
“It is an honour to take over as Chair of HFL Group. I am looking forward to working with such an experienced,
talented and diverse team to deliver on Homes for Lambeth’s goal of building better futures and vibrant
communities.”

“I know the importance of involving residents and I will remain steadfast in ensuring that we deliver for them and that
their voices are heard in every part of the organisation.”

Jitinder Takhar, Homes for Lambeth Chief Executive Officer, commented:
“We are delighted to be welcoming Caroline Pillay and David Gannicott as the new and strengthened leadership
team of the HFL Group Board. Their considerable experience and track record in building homes and communities
will help us continue delivering on our ambitious build programme, involving residents in the delivery of affordable
homes and to tackle the climate challenge.”

Councillor Matthew Bennett, Lambeth’s Lead for Planning, Investment & New Homes added:
“Earlier this year Lambeth council agreed a three-year plan for HfL, which will see 383 new homes built for local
people, 79% of them affordable, including 223 new council homes. Every part of the council and HFL is committed
to working together with our local residents and Lambeth’s diverse communities to build better homes .”
“I’m delighted that in Caroline and David we have two leaders who bring a wealth of experience, who share our
commitment to building a new generation of council homes and who will lead a board that delivers strong, robust
governance and oversight of this ambitious programme.”
 
Press release:

Samantha Herelle to join Homes for Lambeth as new Director of Operations

Mount Green Operations Director, Samantha Herelle to join Homes for Lambeth (HFL) as new Director of
Operations.
Samantha will take up this new position at an important time for HFL. Samantha and her team will be
focused on supporting residents settling into their new homes in the new year and engaging with residents
at the earlier stages of the rebuilding process.

Samantha Herelle said:
“I’m really looking forward to taking up this new role at HFL. Our residents are at the heart of everything
we do, and my focus is to ensure we continue to involve them at every stage of our programme. From
planning consultations to how we manage their homes and services, we will be led by the priorities of our
residents.”

Jitinder Takhar, Chief Executive Officer,remarked:
“Samantha brings over 20 years of housing operations experience, her significant track record will help us
build on the great resident engagement taking place on the estates we are rebuilding. Samantha will lead
our response to the Government’s Charter for Social Housing Residents and ensure our residents are
listened to at every stage of our ambitious programme.”

Richard Stevens, Chair of HFL Homes board, added:
“We are excited to be welcoming Samantha to HFL. She joins us at a crucial period for the business as we
expand. Samantha’s experience will help us deliver high-quality services to current and future residents
whilst embedding residents' feedback in the development of our services.”
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Read this:

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Lambeth Council Cabinet asked to consider taking leisure contract back in-house and ditching Greenwich Leisure Ltd

Lambeth Council’s Cabinet is being asked to consider bringing the leisure contract back in-house and ditching Greenwich Leisure Ltd – the current commercial partner for the Co-operative…
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On this I found the paper Tricky Skills links a while back.

The money to assist GLL/ Better comes not from Council directly. It comes from the "development pot". That is the money from users of leisure centres. Which is kept in separate bank account.

So Council can argue that assistance to GLL is not a burden on the Council Tax payer.

The Council say the money will be recouped by altering the profit/ surplus share so GLL get nothing.

The arrangements that have happened over the years between GLL and Council are less than transparent.

The Vauxhall Leisure centre- Council say that they have given promise of around £1.3 million for GLL to manage this centre.

Apparently the Councill do not own it. GLL/ Better have commercial lease with the owner.

On Carnegie library project GLL owe money to Lambeth.

The Council justification for this relies on the profit/ surplus share.

As the Leisure centres are at best under Covid just breaking even I do not see how there will be a profit/ surplus share in near future.

Im also concerned about the financial arrangements the Council has had with GLL over Carnegie and Vauxhall.

Giiven the economic situation I do not see GLL re paying the financiall assistance by end of contract.

Leisure centres are not like libraries. Even those on concessions pay. The Council gets an income from users of the centres. But it has not consulted them on how the "development pot" is used.

Looks to me it is being used to prop up GLL.

An argument could be made that in effect the Council are propping up GLL managed Leisure centres so why don't they manage them in future?
 
Last edited:
I thought the rationale for out sourcing services is that the risk is taken on the the outsourced provider.

In reality when a crisis comes along this is not the case.
 
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Hello there, sorry to butt in! I have a relevant question, and this feels best place to ask it..

Me and my partner are currently looking at buying a property at Elam Close, Brixton. A leasehold flat with 88 years remaining, the freehold is owned and managed by Lambeth Council.

Given the low length of years remaining on the lease, if we went ahead with the purchase we'd have to look at extending it at some point soon ish.

This is not something i'd normally worry about too much, but i've been doing some research and found a lot of negative press about LC, here and elsewhere. For example..

Leaseholder experience of extending a long lease with Lambeth as freeholder.

Owners of ex-local authority homes face horror of bills running into thousands

Can Lambeth Council Be Trusted With Housing?

Lambeth Council fails to inform tenants of buying freehold - Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman

Excessive bill from Lambeth Council freeholder

..given this we're worried this flat wouldn't be such a good deal!

Does anyone here have any experience either extending a lease with Lambeth Council, or generally living in property managed by Lambeth Council?

Any help greatly appreciated. It's our first home so is a scary purchase - we really want to get it right.

Thanks!
 
Lambeth Council are difficult to deal with, we have a flat bought right to buy 32 years ago so we are considering a lease extension as we've 93 years on ours. There is a need to extend before it gets down to 80 years as the extension cost calculation changes to include "mariage value" for the Lessor. Also you will need to own for two years before you can extend, unless you can get the seller to extend as part of the sale and Lease assignment process, but that may be a step too far with Lambeth Council involved.
Elam Close is part of an estate and you will pay service charges to the Council for works to the estate cleaning, gardening, maintenance, as well as work to the structure of your own building, external decorating, window renewals and roof repairs. The Council do Major Works in fits and starts and get robbed blind by their contractors then pass the cost on to you.
In my involvement with Tenants and Residents, Area Forums, Leasehold Council, Major Works reviews and now the Leaseholder Association we have fought continually for better service, value for money and proper oversight for years.
We do have some victories and I am probably known to many Council Officers as a serial complainer but my work gives me some advantages and we have a good group of people on our estate. Don't take on a Local Authority Leasehold unless you are prepared to spend a significant amount of time dealing with unreasonable systems run by people who are unable to see the damage they do.
 
Thanks Ricbake, really valuable to hear first hand a view from someone with a lot of experience with dealing with them. Appreciate your response. Sounds like you do indeed fight the good fight!

To be honest we're quite put off at this point. We're aware of the costs involved with extending a lease, but are nervous LC would push these even higher, not to mention all the faff and expense with having them as a freeholder/management.

Having said that, I imagine this is the situation with many leaseholds particularly if private companies are involved, or shit councils (which is most probably). So i'm not sure we'll be able to get much better, but will have a think on it.

If anyone else has opinions here then that's welcome also!
 
GuyBoi said:
Thanks Ricbake, really valuable to hear first hand a view from someone with a lot of experience with dealing with them. Appreciate your response. Sounds like you do indeed fight the good fight!

To be honest we're quite put off at this point. We're aware of the costs involved with extending a lease, but are nervous LC would push these even higher, not to mention all the faff and expense with having them as a freeholder/management.

Having said that, I imagine this is the situation with many leaseholds particularly if private companies are involved, or shit councils (which is most probably). So i'm not sure we'll be able to get much better, but will have a think on it.

If anyone else has opinions here then that's welcome also!
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My friend has just been through final tribunal with Lambeth on a lease extension. Lambeth were utter c**nts. Their surveyor Sathasivam Ragunathan is very aggressive. The valuer acting for my friend - who works with a lot of local authority freeholders - said they had never experienced anything like it. In the first tribunal Lambeth were asked whether they were trying to come to a fair price or squeeze every penny they could by whatever means out of their (at that time unrepresented) leaseholder. In the final tribunal (of three) and faced with a QC Lambeth knew that they were pushing their luck and settled only hours before the tribunal (at a still top end price). But it took over two years to get there and a lot of good will from professionals acting for free. I think what they went though could rightly be expected to cost £15,000 in professional fees.

That said, if you can get the vendor to get a price from Lambeth and transfer the right to extend to you. That way you know what to expect and can build it into your price.

Regarding freehold management, it's not the same with with private and local authority freeholders. It is much more difficult to challenge a Local Authority freeholder on maintenance costs.
 
Hi Rushy! Thanks for this info - that is concerning..

We're ideally gonna ask the seller to begin the lease extension process and 'hand it over'. I'm not sure how this works, but would hopefully give us some peace of mind. Rather than moving in and not know what's gonna happen. We'd budgeted about £10 for a lease extension, so £15k would be very annoying, but possibly manageable. I have no idea how it could take 2 years!

I guess the other worry is you move in and are hit with many unexpected maintaianence costs, outside of the service charge. These could be really high and difficult to challenge like you say. But i'm not sure these are totally avoidable, as could happen at any leasehold. Always some risk involved. At least the property isn't a high rise, and has no nasty cladding or lifts to deal with.

We're really torn as love the property so much but it's just scary not knowing what you're getting into! I tried meeting some neighbours who all had OK things to say, but i'm not sure any where leaseholders, they seemed to all be Council tenants (renters).
 
GuyBoi said:
Hi Rushy! Thanks for this info - that is concerning..

We're ideally gonna ask the seller to begin the lease extension process and 'hand it over'. I'm not sure how this works, but would hopefully give us some peace of mind. Rather than moving in and not know what's gonna happen. We'd budgeted about £10 for a lease extension, so £15k would be very annoying, but possibly manageable. I have no idea how it could take 2 years!

I guess the other worry is you move in and are hit with many unexpected maintaianence costs, outside of the service charge. These could be really high and difficult to challenge like you say. But i'm not sure these are totally avoidable, as could happen at any leasehold. Always some risk involved. At least the property isn't a high rise, and has no nasty cladding or lifts to deal with.

We're really torn as love the property so much but it's just scary not knowing what you're getting into! I tried meeting some neighbours who all had OK things to say, but i'm not sure any where leaseholders, they seemed to all be Council tenants (renters).
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It's not a flat on VW by any chance?
 
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