Social housing provider sells off homes amid shortage

Protesting outside Riverside’s offices in Langley

As Britain’s housing crisis spirals, a social housing provider is selling social houses that could be used to fulfil urgent needs.

Riverside, a social housing provider in Middleton in Rochdale, Greater Manchester, is denying people new housing. It says it has “no housing available”.

But the Middleton Tenants Union, along with help for local residents, has uncovered that Riverside has put eight properties up for auction. They could be going to people on the waiting list instead.

“We’ve actually been dealing with a member whose house’s subfloor is covered with water, sand, mould, rats,” Kirby, chair of the tenants union, told Socialist Worker. “She’s been decanted four times.”

Riverside has denied this family a move on the basis that they don’t meet the criteria, and that there are no houses available.

“To say that they have no housing stock, when they’ve obviously been auctioning them off, is just ridiculous,” Kirby said.

Tenants have contacted the tenants’ union to alert them to what is happening.

In one case, Riverside approached an elderly man living in one of the properties, saying that it needed the property for another family. It then moved him to another property and put it up for auction.

In another, an elderly tenant was asking for Riverside to make adaptations to his property for him to live there.

“Riverside didn’t do it, it just basically let the houses go into utter disrepair,” Kirby said. “But the main thing is the contradiction between having social housing stock, but then selling it off and telling vulnerable tenants there are no options available.”

In the Rochdale area alone, 20,000 people are waiting for homes.

“Ultimately, once these properties are sold, the likelihood is that it’s going to a landlord. They will do them up, make the repairs—but then rack up £1,000 or more in rent a month because they are two, three bedroom homes,” Kirby said.

“The people on the waiting list cannot afford that.”

Local councillor Daniel Meredith said in a Facebook post, “These are family homes that could be brought back into use for local people.

“Yet instead of working with Rochdale Borough Council to make that happen, they are being lost from our social housing stock.”

Riverside’s decision to ignore the needs of the community can also be seen in its refusal to cooperate with Middleton Tenants Union.

“We held a protest on Monday at the Riverside office in Middleton, and we did ask to speak to the housing manager, but she quite bluntly refused. She just wouldn’t speak to us. She just asked us to leave,” Kirby said.

“We have reached out to Paul Dolan as well, who’s the head of Riverside. He’s not commented.”

“I’m disgusted,” Kirby said. “I don’t know how these people can sleep at night knowing that these houses are perfect for families on the waiting list.

“Riverside isn’t bothered about the people at all—they call the tenants the ‘customers’. They’re not customers, though, are they?—they are tenants.”

Kirby thought that Riverside has become “too corporate”.

“It’s looking at London, Liverpool, Carlisle, all those bigger places, and as they’ve just got too corporate now in Middleton.”

There is a housing crisis in Britain—and social housing providers like Riverside are doing nothing but exacerbating the problem.