Speech delivered on Tuesday 21st December, 2004 By the Rt.
Hon . Paul. Burstow, MP, LD ,Sutton and Cheam.
My final point is also about
consultation, and again I fear that it is a sham. It
concerns the provision of Sheltered Housing in my
constituency, especially that provided by the Croydon
Churches Housing Association through the schemes
Distin Court, Grace Court, Hepworth Court, and Knight
House. Last year the Housing Association embarked on a
best value review of its Sheltered Housing schemes. It
found, not surprisingly, an overwhelming desire among
tenants to retain Resident Wardens in the schemes.
Tenants felt that resident Wardens provided peace of
mind, security and comfort. However, events have moved
on and an employment tribunal in the London borough of
Harrow concluded that, in a scheme provided by that
local authority, the period of time during which a
resident Warden was required to remain on site on call
was working time for the purposes of the working time
regulations..
The Harrow
judgement has been used as a pretext for withdrawing
resident Wardens and introducing non-resident Wardens. The
legal position is not clear and the interpretation of the
working time directive by other employment tribunals has
led to completely different answers.
.(He goes on to say that the findings
of this particular tribunal has been used to railroad
tenants into accept the belief that they should accept a
lesser service) We must of, of
course, comply with the working time directive, but it
should not be used as an excuse to reduce the quality of
service and the peace of mind that a resident Warden
service provides.
I end with
this point, there is concern that the service to be
introduced from April 2005 will result in people receiving
a Warden service for fewer than 15 hours a week. Under the
concessionary television licence schem, those people who
pay on £5 for a licence because they have residents
Wardens. As they will lose their resident Warden, they may
lose their TV licence concession, so not only will they
lose the quality of life benefits and peace of mind
provided by the service, they will end up paying
more