“Rachmanists with an equalities policy”

bristol | community | news report Saturday January 31, 2009 19:47 by paster - this is from the bristle bloggers site...

Places for Profit?

Our old friends People for Places raise tenants' service charges by 30%

Tenants across Bristol of so-called “social” landlord Places for People are no doubt delighted to be receiving news of their increased service charges this week.

With the RPI standing at 0.9% and falling and the headline inflation rate at 3.1% and crashing towards zero for April, the greedy bastards have decided to raise charges by up to 30%!

That’s right. Some of the the city’s poorest people are being hit - by a charity that claims to “conduct our business in a socially responsible and economically sustainable way” - with charge increases at over ten times the rate of inflation at the start of the most brutal economic downturn since the 30s.

Places for People, of course, are the Housing association that pay their Chief Executive, David Cowans, a whopping £257,000 a year plus extraordinary pension benefits. Will Cowans be taking a pay cut to reflect the tough times and perhaps help reduce the financial impact on his tenants?

No reports yet of Britain’s sleaziest landlord removing his snout from the trough…