THE BITTER battle between the portfolio holder for housing, cllr Lynn Worrall and UKIP MEP Tim Aker has intensified,
Incensed by recent press releases regarding the state of housing in Tilbury, cllr Worrall has made the following statement.
Cllr Worrall said: "It really saddens me that certain people think they can make and should make political capital out of peoples suffering.
The MEP’s statement suggesting that people are likely to die because of inadequate Thurrock Council housing is nothing short of heatless inaccurate scaremongering, frightening some of the most vulnerable people in our community.
"I would like to state that no Thurrock Council tenant is more likely to die this winter.
"Yes there are some single-glazed homes remaining in our stock, but we are replacing them all with double glazed windows.
"And I would like to add that we provide a remarkable service for vulnerable tenants – whether they have double glazed windows or not.
"Things can go wrong, so heating and hot water can fail. We have a policy that this has to be fixed in 24 hours and preferably in 4 hours. In over 99 percent of cases that is what happens. This is far better than people would expect form a private landlord or even calling a private plumber or engineer themselves.
"That is why it is important that our tenants do not just contact the MEP, MP or their councillor if there is a problem. Let them know by all means, but it is important that they let the council know first so that the work to fix it can start immediately.
"By the time the politician – or their Man Friday – has checked their email and then passed it onto members enquiries email address , and then that member of staff has to pass it on to housing for a response, this problem should have been sorted out.
As I said, in over 99 percent of cases we sort out the problem within hours of it being reported and especially for vulnerable resident for whom we have a separate policy.
As the portfolio holder I have arranged that about once a week I and senior housing staff are visiting a random assortment of council homes across the borough – be it scheduled work as part of the Transforming Homes programme or where there has been a scheduled repair.
We need to bring an end to this counter- productive scare-mongering for political and headline-grabbing purposes. I am committed to deal with things sensibly and this means putting the tenant first and not the politician.
I would ask that if tenants have a hot water or heating problem they call 08000740169 for the quickest response.
