Nerve 7 Letters Page

Dear Nerve Magazine,
In your last two editions you have carried strong allegations about LHT, one of them anonymously. In neither case did you make any attempt to contact us to check the facts or to get our side of the story.
The reason we exist is to make life better for both the people we house and the communities we work in. The evidence from sources as varied as the Audit Commission, North West Excellence, the Housing Corporation and independently conducted tenant surveys is that we are very successful in what we do.
But we operate on a large scale and I know we do not always get it right, so when things go wrong we want to hear about it so we can sort it out. I would be happy to meet you to hear about particular cases or general issues, and to respond to you about them.
Yours sincerely,
Dave Bebb, Chief Executive LHT

Dear Dave,
Thanks for replying. I'm sorry that our articles have caused you distress, however it seems like it takes the publication of damning allegations to get your attention. It simply isn't true that we 'did not make any attempt to contact (you) to check the facts or to get (y)our side of the story'. I personally contacted your head office several times to make enquiries, but was repeatedly told that you had 'a policy of not discussing individual cases with the media'. Similarly, emails to info@lhtgroup.co.uk seem to have been ignored. However, I thought the allegations were too serious to ignore, and I am glad you now seem to agree.
You state that 'when things go wrong we want to hear about it so we can sort it out'. That is commendable. However, you have clearly now heard of the allegations that we have published and have taken no positive action. True, the letter in Nerve 6 was anonymous, so you cannot be blamed for not following that one up. But the allegations made in the 'Bleak House' article of Nerve 5 carried both the name and address of the complainant. Since then the threats and seemingly underhanded dealings have accelerated, and Paula Smith of 9 Belvedere Road, Princes Park, L8 3TF seems no nearer to receiving an acceptable settlement from you. Look below and you will see yet another case which shows you 'don't always get it right'. If you continue to make these 'mistakes' in your job then I will continue to make exposing them part of mine.
Yours sincerely, Adam Ford

Dear Nerve,
I read a letter in issue 6 from a 'concerned LHT tenant' regarding Liverpool Housing Trust's mistreatment of tenants. They mentioned an article in an earlier copy of Nerve about LHT. Would it be possible to request a copy? I myself am an LHT tenant in the Princes Park area living in a damp ridden substandard flat. I am extremely interested in any campaigning on this issue and wonder if you have any details about this?
Also I have only seen your magazine once (issue 6 in News From Nowhere) and would like to know what has happened to it. It's an excellent magazine.
Yours faithfully,
Catherine Sheridan, another concerned LHT tenant

Dear Nerve,
Blair's government is using Iraqi asylum seekers as political footballs. They are being used and abused in order to fool us.
Before the war, despite an absence of American planes dropping bombs or the activities of al Qaeda, Iraq was deemed 'unsafe' and refugees from there were welcomed.
Now the latest from the Home Office is that Iraq is 'safe' and a hit list of 7,000 Iraqi Kurds has been drawn up for forcible repatriation. Many of them have children and UK partners but nonetheless back they must go, babies included. I have a Kurdish friend and his English partner has been told she can go and live with him in Iraq, as he cannot stay. This is despite Foreign Office advice to UK nationals not to visit the country, as it is 'dangerous'.
How safe is Iraq? Personally, I don't think Iraq is safe even for highly trained British soldiers in tanks let alone civilians.
It is one thing for the British government to lie to us about the war being 'over' and a 'safe Iraq' but it is another thing altogether to send asylum seekers to possible death for propaganda purposes. Shameless!
Mark Holt, Chair, Merseyside Stop The War Coalition

An open letter to Ms. Elaine Stewart
Team Leader, South Central Neighbourhood Team

Dear Ms. Stewart,
We are writing to express our serious concerns regarding the plans to demolish some 185 houses in the Welsh Streets and Kelvin Grove area.
We ask you to respond to our questions on the plans:
What guarantees can be given to local residents and tenants that they will be able to remain in the area, if their homes are amongst those to be demolished? Will this be dependent on them being able to afford higher rents or house prices? We believe that estimates for new housing on the site are £115,000 for a two bedroom house and £130,000 for a three bedroom house, compared with approx. £80,000 for a renovated house.
Given present concerns about global warming, what consideration has been given to the environmental impact of new build as opposed to renovation? Maxwell Hutchinson (Architect) interviewed on 'You and Yours' (Radio 4, 1st August 2005) compared the amount of carbon emissions created when restoring a house to driving a car to Moscow and back. In contrast, he compared those created when building a new house to driving the same car six times round the world.
Will the new housing be built to last one hundred years and more? Whilst in need of renovation, the existing terraced streets are solidly built and have a proven track record.
What lessons if any have been learnt from the 1960s, both in terms of destroying the character of our historic city and breaking up communities that take many years to form?
We are concerned that the Pathfinder initiative has more to do with creating opportunities for private developers than regenerating inner city areas for local people, as was exposed in 'File on Four' (Radio 4, 8th August 2005).
We look forward to hearing from you.
Yours sincerely,
Jeanette Abendstern and Brian Leaver