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Below are just a few......
* Sweep away the past and focus on improving repairs, not internal politics.
* Stamp out division to create 'cohesion' within the board.
* Work with the council, so that it trusts the TMO as a professional organisation able to run housing stock smoothly.
* Change residents' perception of the TMO and get younger people involved.
The consensus view amongst residents-tenants and leaseholders is that he has been an abysmal failure.
Promises made remain undelivered and the organisation is still riddled with malpractice, corruption and bullying.
We need to address some important issues:
- Is the TMO just too big and unaccountable?
- Should it be broken up into smaller, more accountable management units?
- Is the senior management fit for purpose?
But, more importantly...has Black delivered on anything?
He keeps such a low profile one wonders if he even exists. My feeling is that he has been over promoted and I sense a tenant rebellion in the wind.
ReplyDeleteA lot of PR but not much action.
Robert Black has been a major disappointment.
ReplyDeleteI agree: but worse is the Council has allowed him to run things in such an amateur and ramshackle way.
DeleteBlack keeps Tory Councillors sweet. He knows which side his bread is buttered. He was prepared to do for Cremorne residents to keep in with Tory Councillors and their developer mates.
DeleteShane, I have always admired you for telling it like it is when it comes to the TMO. Your straight talking, no nonsense approach is something that really gets under the skin of those at the TMO. They are not as clever as you for a start.
DeleteWhat did you think you were doing when you described Robert Black as a "major disappointment." Have you taken leave of your senses, or are you expressing yourself in Litotes.
Where I am concerned, Robert Black has turned the TMO in to a fireproof disaster.
Apparently not so "fireproof" in the light of recent events....
DeleteIf I were Black, I would be very worried about too many complaints being made to Councillors and to the Dame. it all ended in tears for his predecessors and it will surely end in tears for Robert Black.
ReplyDeleteTime to say goodbye to the TMO Senior Management Team. The Senior Management Team was cleared out by Mrs Evans about seven years ago.
ReplyDeleteIt's time Holgate and Paget-Brown got a grip on this unfit for purpose organisation
ReplyDelete£140k to run a Housing Association!
ReplyDeleteStaggering
I seem to recall in 2008 the then Director of Housing Health & Adult Social Care for the Council saying that Robert Black's salary package of £ 114, 000 was the going rate for the job.
ReplyDeleteI am staggered that the TMO Board has increased this man's salary by £36, 000 over six years, A WHACKING INCREASE OF 31.5 %. I seem to recall reading that Black increased the allowances for Board Members and reduced the number of times that the Board meets to scrutinise TMO business. No wonder the TMO Board looks after Black.
BLACK EARNS MORE THAN A MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT & GETS A FINAL SALARY PENSION BUT WE CAN"T VOTE HIM OUT EVERY FIVE YEARS.
I suppose none of us would mind if Black did a good job.
It would be sensible to ask the inimitable Shae Carter to start the process of evicting the useless Black and his overpaid and under qualified team....
ReplyDeleteLet's have some democracy in action.
I recently saw Shane on the television talking about housing. He was excellent. I hoped he would say something about the TMO. I suspect he is too much of a gentlemen for that sort of thing.
DeleteThe problem is that I suspect Shane has too much work to do. A shame he could really shake the corrup and lazy idiots up
DeleteI saw Shane on the telley too. He was very good. Vanessa Feltz loves having him on her radio programme. She is always very impressed with his comments on the economy, politics, housing and social issues. I think Shane could have a career in broadcasting.
DeleteShane is very generous with his time. He has done many good turns for his neighbours.
DeleteShane when you are next on the air waves on about hosuing, give the TMO a duffing up good and proper.
DeleteDear Dame, if your correspondents seriously think that the Council would do a better job than the TMO, then they are living in cloud cuckoo land. If the Council took back control, every single estate would be up for regeneration as quickly as possible – turning the whole of the borough into a massive building site so that investors, spivs and money launderers from Russia and the Far East can place their ill-gotten gains in a safe haven! Black may not be perfect but he is far, far better than Perry and Evans ever were.
ReplyDeleteIs the comment at 10.41 from the pen of a Labour supporter or councillor. What is described by 10.41 has already started in K&C and it will proceed with undue haste with Black in charge of the TMO. Black is worse than Perry. Evans was better than Black.
Delete10.41 is one of these stupid people who thinks that we should tolerate the TMO because if we don't, it will be the end of Council housing. Talk about "cloud cuckoo land."
Delete10.41 is a vapid person
DeleteRe Black's salary: He and others at the 'hub' receive a considerable 'performance bonus' in addition to their salaries. Sizeable chunk of it is for turning up from Monday to Friday...When I was younger, this was part of my pay...
ReplyDeleteThe Dame says that Mr Black earns £ 140, 000 per year.
DeleteThe Prime Minister earns £ 142, 500. Should the CEO of the TMO be paid nearly as much as the Prime Minister?
Mr Kingsford performed the duties of Chief Executive and Company Secretary for half the price and he left the TMO in 2002.
I used to work for the Council. My boss insisted on observing the interviews of candidates for the TMO Chief Executives job. She told us that she would not have chosen Robert Black. She explained her reasons to TMO Board Members and Juliet Rawlings was having none of it.
ReplyDeleteI was on the TMO Board when Robert Black came for his interview. We ignored what Jean Daintith said about the applicants. We had the hump with her for giving the TMO a Breach Notice so we did not choose the person she wanted.
DeleteRobert Black has not done very well. I recently saw the CEO of Tesco's. He has got what it takes to turn a failing business around. Robert Black in six years at the TMO has not managed what the boss of Tesco's has managed in just over six months.
ReplyDeleteDear Dame,
ReplyDeleteThe questions you ask in this article get to the root of the problems at the Kensington and Chelsea TMO.
The Kensington and Chelsea TMO is the only Borough-wide Tenant Management Organisation in the Country. Successful TMO's tend to be small organisations managing anything from a few hundred properties or less up to one thousand properties. These small tenant management organisations commission services, (estate cleaning, repairs to tenants' homes, gardening et cetra) which meet the real needs of the residents who live on these estates. The staff who work in these small tenant management organisations provide a friendly, efficient level of service and get to know residents. On visiting a small successful tenant management co-operative, I am immediately struck by residents who take a pride in their estates and their homes.These residents appreciate the way in which staff adapt service level requirements to meet the needs of individual tenants; many of whom are vulnerable. It is nice to see residents and staff all pulling on the same end of the rope working together. By contrast, the KCTMO has a "them and us" culture.
The service provided by the KCTMO is not very different to the bureaucratic, unresponsive, one size fits all, authoritarian type of service provided by most Local Authority Housing Departments. Like most large organisations including Local Authority Housing Departments, KCTMO staffs are reluctant to admit they have made a mistake or got something wrong. They go to extraordinary lengths arguing the toss about all sorts of things when saying sorry would make such a difference. The service at the KCTMO is bureaucratic and authoritarian as opposed to democratic and participatory.
I am aware that there have been attempts by some residents to form small TMO's in Kensington and Chelsea and insurmountable obstacles were put in the way by former KCTMO Chief Executives. All very sad- and a lost opportunity.
Shane's got it right about the services provided in small TMO's and what can be achieved. I have a friend who lives on an estate in Battersea. When the Council ran that estate, it was run down, dreary, dirty, and the quality of repairs' work was poor. People's flats were regularly broken in to and muggings took place on the estate far too often. It then became a Tenant Management Co-operative and things changed for the better. The staff in the Estate Office work in close proximity to the tenants and know and understand residents. The estate is now spotlessly clean with well kept, litter free, lawns and flower beds. The Repairs Contractor produces work of a very good standard. My friend says that it is an estate where she wants to live and that paying the rent is now a matter of pride.
ReplyDeleteThe Dame asks if Robert Black has delivered results. He is quick to reel off his list of achievements.The TMO and its services has not improved. There is evidence that the TMO treats people in conflict with it differently to others. Equality of access to service does not apply if the person requesting service is critical of the TMO.
ReplyDeleteSo the TMO is vengeful and it does down its opponents.. How can we be confident that they do not do down other minority groups - Blacks, Asians, Jews, the Irish, Gay People and Disabled People.
ReplyDeleteBlack has not delivered for TMO Residents.
ReplyDeleteThere are alot of people saying how bad and how much of an amature he is but what about all the people who are not on here who feel that he has impoved the service and made TMO better? 'Playing devils advicate here'
ReplyDelete11.44 stop playing devil's advocate. Man up or woman up.
DeleteMan up? Playing devil's advocate is looking on the other side of the argument so you can see both sides before making an opiniono of the whole thing. what has that got to do with maning up?
DeleteThis blog shows that the TMO under Black has upset lots of people
ReplyDeleteRobert Black has not delivered. If people petitioned for the winding up of the TMO, the TMO would be history. People interested in calling for the winding up of the TMO should contact the TMO Company Secretary to obtain details of what is required.
ReplyDeleteI would like to see the ineffectual and arrogant ones at the TMO lining up for he Dole. There was time when companies got rid of staff who were not up to the job.
ReplyDeleteHow do so many ineffectual people keep their jobs at the TMO. There used to be a strong masonic presence at the TMO.
ReplyDeleteIf the TMO folds, I don't think the staff will end up on the dole. They will probably be transferred under the TUPE Regulations.That does not mean to say that staffing is not an issue because an organisation is only as good as the people who worn in it.
ReplyDelete