Wiltshire Council have demanded better efforts from two housing providers following several complaints.
Aster Group and GreenSquareAccord were discovered to be removing tenants from houses that were then being put up for sale on open markets. What’s more GreenSquareAccord were also pulled up for poor maintenance and excessive service charges.
With this in mind, Wiltshire Council are looking to pass a motion requiring better standards unanimously. A meeting is set to take place on the matter on 24th July.
When these reports surfaced, Nick Botterill, Cabinet member for planning, described the news as ‘appalling and unprofessional’ and accused the organisations of ‘playing with people’s lives’.
In addition, Ian Thorn, Wiltshire Council’s Lib Dem leader, said: ‘I’ve seen residents in GreenSquareAccord properties that, bluntly, you wouldn’t keep animals in.
‘We’ve all seen this – where residents have got water, literally permanently, running down their walls, who have been waiting years to have some sort of work done that might address the issue.’
However, both housing providers have claimed that whilst their actions can be seen as unjustified, they claimed property sales can help fund reinvestment and improvement of housing stock.
According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, a spokesperson for GreenSquareAccord, said: ‘Investing in our existing homes to make sure they are of a high standard for our customers is a top priority for us.
‘In 2023/24 we invested £71.2m on repairs and improvements. We have a legal and ethical responsibility to make sure our homes are… energy efficient and as cheap to run as possible.
‘To achieve this we must make sensible, sustainable decisions about our investments.
‘In some instances, the cost of investing to bring a property up to the required standards cannot be justified and, in those cases, the responsible decision is to sell that property.
‘When this happens we provide tailored support and compensation for impacted customers and help them to move on to suitable alternative accommodation.’
Likewise, Aster Group said in a statement: ‘In a very small number of cases, we will sometimes sell a property that is unsustainable.
‘This enables us to reinvest money from the sale into building more modern, energy efficient, affordable homes that better meet our customers’ needs.
‘We support any customer affected by this throughout the entire process, providing them with suitable alternative accommodation and assistance with moving to their new home.’
Image: Ivy Barn