Consultants paid £4.5k a week by housing management company (From Streatham Guardian)

Consultants paid £4.5k a week by housing management company

Consultants at the borough’s housing management company earned up to £4,500 a week, even as the company axed jobs and tenants were denied all but emergency repairs, it has been claimed.

Consultants paid £4.5k a week by housing management company

The GMB union claimed Lambeth Living (LL), an arm’s-length management organisation (Almo) that manages housing in the borough, paid between £1,000 and £4,500 for 20 consultants.

LL denied the figures but refused to disclose any other information on the total consultancy spend.

Residents said the revelation – along with a Government announcement that future housing money would go through council’s, not Almo’s – meant LL should be merged into the council.

Clive Smith, GMB regional organiser, said: “At the same time as LL is cutting frontline jobs, it is employing consultants on up to five-times the market rate.

“Two of these many consultants are being paid more than £4,500 per week – that’s higher than the council chief executive.

“This is a scandalous waste of public funds at a time when frontline staff are being dismissed.”

GMB regional organiser Jon Rogers added: “I have seen information that shows there are some 20 people earning from £1,000 as consultants.

“The money to pay them comes out of the housing revenue account – money being paid by council tenants.”

Lambeth Council’s chief executive Derrick Anderson earned £211,323 in the year to 2009.

Carol Swain, chairwoman of the Albert Carr Estate Tenants Association, said LL had stopped all repair work “and only the health and safety repairs are being done”.

She said: “A lot of tenants here feel they should not have as many consultants.

“Any normal company only has one or two. We all wonder why they are employing more consultants when we are in such a mess as it is.”

Jean Haley, chairwoman of Central Hill Estate Tenants Association added: “Lambeth brought in the Almo, and the majority of people didn’t want it.

“We are paying so much money out for that, and the services have never been so bad.

“When it came to Government funding, before they had to have an Almo to get the decent homes money, but now any council can bid for it.

“We don’t need this Almo, and we think housing should go back to the council.”

Keith Hill, chairman of the LL board denied the accusations, saying the consultants were value for money.

He said: “There are a small number of consultants on short-term contracts brought in to manage specific projects. Savings from these projects will far outweigh the expenditure.

“We need people with experience and don’t make any apologies from bringing in people with this expertise.”

In a letter to the GMB, LL Mr Hill added: “I, and my board of directors, believe the Almo is part of the solution for the residents of Lambeth and not, as you surmise, a part of the problem.”