Hi Everyone Today's Dream headline would be 'CARDIFF COUNTY COUNCIL FACING TENANT REVOLT' With maybe this as the story. 'Today a mass que formed outside Marland house as thousands of Cardiff County Council tenants came to request that their rents no longer be paid direct to the Council, but were to be transferred to an account opened up by the cities Tenants and Residents Association. A spokesperson for the Association said 'We have become concerned that we have been misled by the Council, over where the money comes from to pay Housing Benefit. Many of us have been under the impression that it comes from the Community Charge. But we now realise that it comes from Central Government, and that Council tenants have been due to the manner in which the Council has been allowed to keep their Rent Revenue Account over the years actually defrauded of over £300 million in the last 10 years, and that is why we have started up this campaign, to prove how much money the rents actually amount to over a year.' Rodney Berman the Chairman of Cardiff County Council was unavailable for comment, but a statement from the Council says that 'they will be taking legal advise over the non-payment of rents by tenants' The unprecedented number of people taking up the protest has shocked Council Members. One who preferred to remain anonymous told The Echo 'This is sending shock waves through the Council'. When asked many of the Tenants said much the same thing 'We want to know what the difference in the bottom line of the Rent Revenue Account would have been these last 20 years if the Tenancies had been run as a Housing Association, and if the figure is over the £300 million as we believe it may well be. Then heads should roll, and Criminal proceedings go ahead against those responsible for the Criminal Negligence of the Tenants'. There has been utter silence on this matter at the Welsh Assembly as they are the body that made the council take the Rent Rebates out of the Rent Revenue Account and place it in the Councils General Fund. Which has been another concern of the C.T.R.A. If a Housing Association Housing Benefit payments do not show on the Council Accounts, then the General Fund is now being de-frauded as has been the Rent Revenue Account until the time the Welsh Assembly moved it into the General Fund.
Yep that would be the Dream headline as it is, the Tenants and Residents Association Chairperson Pam Williams wrote me the following email reply to the request for help
Dear Mr. Gabriel
Sorry for the delay. Unfortunately, the problems that you seem to have do not come under our remit. Therefore I am passing your communication on to your local councillor. jhooper@cardiff .gov.uk who will pass it on to the relevant dept.