SERVICES TO SOCIAL HOUSING AWARD
Goes to...
SALFORD CITY MAYOR, PAUL DENNETT
Despite thousands of people being kicked off Salford Council's official housing waiting list when new eligibility rules were brought in, there is still a queue for two bedroom social rent properties, which according to official reports, will have you waiting 3.2 years before you can get a foot in the door (see here).
So how did Salford City Mayor, Paul Dennett, obtain a social rent flat at Albion Towers, just a hop, skip and a jump away from Media City, and very handy for popping into Manchester city centre?
Last February, the Salford Star revealed that when Dennett was a mere Assistant Mayor in 2015 he got the flat after an interview with Windsor Albion Co-operative which runs the block. By pure coincidence Dennett was also a board member of the Windsor Albion Co-operative.
`No, no, no' he declared "I have never been involved in Windsor Albion Housing Co-op's allocation panel...I have only ever been a co-opted member of the board with no voting rights."
Oh, so that's ok then! But there's more. The then Assistant Mayor, on an allowance of £23,450 from the Council, told the Star that he was about to be made homeless at the time... "I initially moved out of council housing after effectively being made homeless. After a period of sofa-surfing and living in shared accommodation my house-mates moved to Kent, which required me to look for alternative accommodation. I was registered with Salford Homesearch..."
At the time Dennett got the Albion Towers flat there were there were 112 eligible homeless households in priority need of housing, and 119 eligible homeless people in Salford not in priority need. Of these, there were 24 single males who were eligible for assistance, homeless and in priority need.
"I'm proud to live in Council and Social Housing in Salford, and have done for almost all my time living in the city" Dennett told the Star "Social Housing is a right, not a privilege, and I am committed to fighting for more social and affordable housing so that everyone in the city has the option."
Some might argue that sitting on the board of a Salford Council social rent housing co-op gives some people more of an option than others.
Now Paul Dennett is Salford City Mayor, having been elected last May on a salary of £69,000, and writes the intro to the Council's soon-to-be-published Anti-Poverty Strategy...
The Strategy promises that the Council will create "more good quality and affordable homes" and adds that "High housing costs constitute one of the most direct impacts on poverty and material deprivation..." No danger of that in the Mayor's household!
So, ladies and gentlemen, swing your Pendletons, insist on an ivory tower and quote William Blake's `Are such things done on Albion's shore?' for the winner of the Salford Star Mary Burns Award for Services To Social Housing...
Salford City Mayor, Paul Dennett!
If the Mayor would like to make an acceptance speech, please use the comments box below...
Winners of the 2016 Salford Star Mary Burns Awards
*Nice Work If You Can Get It Award Hazel Blears click here
* Green Fingers Award - Salford City Council - click here
*Ethical Hypocrisy Award Co-operative Group click here
*George Bush Read My Lips Award Hazel Blears, Phil Mayall and Councillor Derek Antrobus - click here
*Services To Heritage Destruction Fred Done click here
* Pimp My Poverty Award - Salford City Council - click here
*Feed The Rich Award Peel Holdings click here
*International Award Manchester City Council click here
* `How The Fuck Did You Manage To Ignore Almost 3 Million People?' Award Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) click here
*Affordable Housing Hypocrisy Revolving Door Award Councillor Paul Longshaw click here
* Uncle Joe Stalin Award for Open and Democratic Government Salford City Mayor Paul Dennett click here
* Gary Neville Finger In Pies Award - Salford City Council - click here
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