Lina's home adapted for her needs

“Mr. Phat,

The fact that this lady and her family deserve to stay in their family home aside, she should count herself lucky. If she was a private homeowner or a tenant of any other housing association it would be likely that she would not be living in a property specially adapted to her and her familys needs.

The local council has a budget for special needs for the disabled. However over the years the major beneficiary, if not the only beneficiary, has been Two Rivers Housing (TRH). The budget seems to be a floating figure, not a set amount. Since its creation TRH has benefitted to the tune of £200K+ annually. In one year it reached nearly £750K. There seems to be little to no scrutiny over how the costs are reached. TRH has its own operation managers for these projects, and one can only assume that their costs are included. TRH undoubtedly also benefits from other council funding that is lot less transparent.

TRH is less reluctant to spend its own money. It has fallen well short of targets set for the creation of new housing, preferring to knock down existing stock and rebuild. Its in line for an influx of new stock, but that is only due to grants from the Homes & Communities Agency. The mocking description of TRH as nothing but a bunch of glorified rent collectors may not be too far of the mark.

Tenant satisfaction is a lot less than it portrays. It has reneged on promises it made when it first took over the councils old housing stock. It said in its first prospectus that wardens for sheltered housing would be maintained and directly employed by TRH. However when Gloucestershire County Council (GCC) cut its funding for warden services, TRH backtracked and said that the wardens were employed by GCC and that they were to blame for the service being scrapped.

Tenants who move out of their properties are hit with costs that are disproportionate to the work that is required. On one occasion an ex tenant was hit with a bill of over £2000 by TRH to put the property back to standard. This was after the council surveyor had looked at the property and said no remedial work was needed. The issue highlighted above brings into question whether TRH also gets money from the council to put properties right, meaning that ex tenants (or the tax payers) are maybe paying for something they don't have to.”

“Can someone please explain why it should cost the taxpayer money for Two Rivers to pay THEIR staff to update THEIR properties for the benefit of THEIR customers.
The fact that Two Rivers have already decided how much it is going to cost the taxpayer to adapt / delapse these properties tells people exactly what they need to know about this issue.”

“It would be cheaper and easier to just take a wall out and make a 2 bed house due to fact the house has been adapted to care for there medical needs and the stress caused for having to move. has common sense really gone out the window or are some people just in the wrong jobs.”

“Only half the story written up TiG. You forgot to explain it's about the spare bedroom tax.

Unfortunately welfare spending has accelerated out of control over the last 15 years or so and, with widespread fraud and abuse, we find ourselves in this position where genuine claimants are being penalised. This is why we need a complete rethink of the benefit system so that those in genuine need can be properly cared for at the expense of the true scroungers, abusers and fraudsters.

With regard to Lina, does she require care during the night which is currently provided by her husband? If so, maybe he could refuse due to the impossibility of providing 24 hour care and get a live in night time carer. The bedroom would not then be taxed.

Other than that they should be exempt from the tax due to their needs for a specially adapted property.”