
CBHA Tenants Protest at Peabody
CBHA Tenants are to protest at the Peabody staff conference on Wednesday and have appealed for all to support for their lobby. The details are:
Wednesday 24th June
8am
Park Plaza Hotel
200 Westminster Bridge Road
London SE1 7UT
Nearest stations Westminster and Waterloo (map).
Unite Housing Workers Branch is calling on all members available for an hour or so that morning to come along and support the protest.
The tenant group is angry at proposals to fully merge the subsidiary, removing the CBHA board and replacing it with centralised governance and decisions taken by the main Peabody board. Resident and tenant input would be via the Scrutiny Panel which would have no more than adivsory status. The changes could also affect the way services are delivered,
The rationale offered by Peabody for these changes has been a desire to simplify governance and create more efficient structures. Instead, tenants fear that it will reduce service quality. The tenants group of organisers has pointed out that CBHA is well run, financially healthy, and with an excellent track record on performance - superior in fact to many of the key indicators for Peabody group. This includes a 100% rate by CBHA residents on the handling of anti-social behaviour cases, compared to 59% at Peabody.
The Peabody Group, which now encompasses Gallions as well as CBHA and Peabody Enterprises Limited, owns and manages over 27,000 properties. Tenant and resident organisers have made the point that the Peabody board will not be able to devote much attention to the small corner of its empire which CBHA represents, with just 1,600 units.