Just had a Clarion Housing Association tenant with a burst outdoor water pipe not being able to contact the emergency number – each time we tried to phone it rang through, then cut off after 30 seconds!! It seems the stopcock was nowhere to be found but luckily a good neighbour, thanks John, was able to put in a temporary repair. Eventually got through on my phone waiting 47 minutes until Clarion responded and she was able to talk to someone.
With higher temperatures due tomorrow, now is the time to beware that thawing snow and ice makes pipes susceptible to bursting. Water companies are already seeing high demand for tap water which could be due to leaking pipes. This is particularly the case where houses may not have been heated as well as normally.
Do ensure you know where the stopcock is to turn off the water supply so in the event of a burst you can limit the damage, normally located under the sink. Plastic outdoor pipes are particularly prone to bursting as in this instance and if they cannot be isolated from the main supply should be lagged in cold weather to protect them.

Our Mid Sussex MP has attached her flag firmly to this governments misguided budget plans giving unfunded tax cuts to millionaires effectively loading the cost on to future taxpayers. As a direct result the pound has crashed and interest rates are destined to soar, with £500 billion wiped off UK assets following the “delight” of our local MP.

We are already suffering the consequences with many of us worried about the cost of living, mortgages and our pensions. My fear that public services would bear the consequences appears to be well founded with government departments today ordered to find “efficiency savings” at a time when inflation has already caused big gaps in budgets. Now we hear benefits may not rise in line with inflation, what next, pension uplifts cancelled? Unlike Mims Davies I am definitely not delighted by the budget.

As a local Councillor I am fearful of what the Conservative’s “mini-budget” means for local people, so far their tax cuts have been revealed to benefit the very rich, with only those earning over £155,000 paying less tax over the course of this parliament according to the Institute of Fiscal Studies.  At the same time the run on the pound and increase in interest rates, combined with increasing inflation will be ruinous on our individual finances and government support for energy costs does nothing to solve issues of energy poverty or support insulation and the move to net zero. 

Yet this does not even begin to factor in the effect on public services funded by the government, whether NHS or council services which will see reduced funding to help pay for this budget. 

A real plan for growth would prioritise investment in public services and the green economy and provide investment incentives to businesses rather than the current scattergun approach which involves lobbing large tax cuts for businesses without expecting anything in return.

The Conservatives have gone into the territory of voodoo economics where their rationale depends on fairy tale economic growth, we need to fight back, its time to stand up, join us as Liberal Democrats, we can take Mid Sussex at the next election on the current trends of a kamikaze government that is putting millionaires before ordinary people and has no connection with everyday reality.

The 18th September marked the three-month anniversary since Clarion Housing Association was hit by a cyber-attack resulting in a significant loss of service to tenants particularly around contacting staff directly by phone and paying rent, which has still not been remedied. It is a concern that this has had such a significant effect on the Housing Association and has created significant uncertainty for tenants concerned about the safety of their personal data and unable to speak to customer services about routine tenancy issues.

Clarion is a large well funding Housing Association that makes a significant surplus from its housing stock, so it is even more worrying as they do not suffer from lack of funds to address the issue. However, it is perhaps linked to Clarion Housing Association’s problems in maintaining its properties, where my experience of reviewing casework issues is that adequate routine planned maintenance has not taken place or is woefully inadequate, resulting in numerous complaints from tenants requiring reactive maintenance.

As a case in point, the tenants of Church Flats in Cuckfield Lane, Warninglid had raised issues multiple times with disrepair of the roof area leaving holes as pictured in the fascia and window frames allowing squirrels and rats to access the roof space, but no action had taken place. When I raised the issue scaffolding was put up to allow repairs to the fascia although three weeks later no actual repairs have taken place, my impression in this and other cases is that planned maintenance has not been undertaken in a timely fashion leaving issues to be taken up as reactive maintenance.

Clarion appears to be underfunding its tenant services, clearly it has under invested in IT infrastructure and all the evidence from tenants is that its repair service is not fit for purpose.  My suspicion is senior staff are incentivised to build more houses but not to provide a quality service to its tenants or ensuring its existing housing stock is properly maintained. 

Leaks seem to be springing up all over the place, no doubt due to the excessive dry conditions as soil contracts and heaves, bursting underground pipes.  Current leaks I have checked out as outstanding for repair include St John’s Road, Park Road (the actual leak is just inside Park Close) and on Maple Drive (near The Hawthorns) which are among at least eleven currently shown as outstanding in Burgess Hill – reporting is easy via the South East Water interactive map.

A quarter of water companies have failed to meet the targets for reducing wasteful mains leakage which nationally runs at a massive 18% of supply. Mid Sussex faces a hosepipe ban from next Friday, but Ofwat as regulator needs to ensure water companies spend more on maintenance and less on profits returned to shareholders – South East Water doubled its profit in 2020/21 taking a 15% cut of water charges!

Following my last enquiry in December I was advised that the former Ernest Kleinwort Care Home in Oakenfield was being put on the market to be sold, but after chasing the lack of action I now understand the sale has now been halted as the Disabilities Trust is looking to reconfigure the home for care provision following discussion with local commissioning authorities. The home has been left vacant since 2018, and its disappointing that progress on its reuse has been so slow, but I hope now finally we might see this matter progress.

I am concerned that Clarion Housing Association is once again in the news for the wrong reasons, a cyber-attack wiped out some of its IT systems, in particular the direct debit payments for rent payments seem to have been stopped for many tenants, leaving them unclear how to pay their rent. The incident happened on 17th June, but tenants have been left in the dark until recently about what was going on, phone enquiries are only taken for emergency repairs although an online chat facility is now available to take other repairs and payment enquires.

Clarion is the biggest housing association in the country, too big many would say, it manages 125,000 homes and effectively operates using public money without proper representation from its tenants or local communities, given the way such housing association Boards are appointed. It’s the latest incident to affect the housing association, which is already facing an investigation from the Housing Ombudsman after the regulator found severe failings with the recent finding of significant maladministration of leaks, damp and pest infestations, as well as its complaint handling.

This is not in the least unexpected given the problems I have seen locally, Clarion is too big and too remote from the areas it serves. The Housing Minister has been urged to remove and replace the Clarion board with competent Board members by the Social Housing Action Campaign, and I would support this, it needs to engage with tenants and residents over the long-term future of the organisation with a view to breaking up an organisation that has grown far to big.