Pembrokeshire Housing – Jac o' the North

Anti-Welsh Housing Associations

Jac — Tue, 07 Nov 2017 12:10:30 +0000

TO RECAP . . . I have written many times about social housing in Wales, and of the many problems created by the more irresponsible housing associations. Here are just a few of the problems: Unlike in Scotland, social housing providers in Wales are tied into an Englandandwales system. This results in our housing associations …

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Mill Bay Homes, Demographic Time Bomb, Police Transfers

Jac — Sun, 13 Aug 2017 23:35:01 +0000

I present here a trio of very interesting tales. The first is an update on an old favourite, Mill Bay Homes, the publicly-funded private house builder in Pembrokeshire which may now, finally, have gone straight. The second will cheer you up no end, for our wonderful ‘Welsh’ Government has cracked the problem of ‘the demographic …

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Wales and West, Labour’s In-House Housing Association

Jac — Mon, 23 Jan 2017 16:00:21 +0000

If you read this blog regularly you’ll know about the takeover of Cantref, a housing association based in Newcastle Emlyn, by Wales and West Housing of Cardiff, a company with strong links to the Labour Party. For those catching up, I advise starting with the post Cantref: ‘Welsh’ Labour Takeover Challenged? To give some chronological marker, …

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Housing Associations: Secret or Public?

Jac — Mon, 02 Jan 2017 22:22:54 +0000

It’s difficult to know where to start with this rather complex story. Maybe we should go back to 2008 and the Welsh Housing Quality Standard, presented as an attempt to improve the standard of social housing. The WHQS was in fact nothing more than the Decent Homes Standard that operated in England. Another example of ‘Welsh’ …

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Welsh Social Housing, A Broken System

Jac — Sun, 23 Oct 2016 20:25:14 +0000

My previous post dealt with offshore property company Link Holdings (Gibraltar) Ltd and housing associations leasing properties from it, though I made passing reference – just a paragraph – to another publicly funded housing association, Pembrokeshire Housing, and Mill Bay Homes, the latter a subsidiary of the former that builds houses to sell to anyone. …

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Link Holdings (Gibraltar) Ltd: An Open Letter to Carwyn Jones

Jac — Mon, 17 Oct 2016 21:38:36 +0000

October 17th 2016 First Minister, You may have read my previous post, ”. If not, then I suggest you read it, if only to help you understand what follows. Your government gives a great deal of public money to housing associations. These bodies are largely unregulated and, as a consequence, a law unto themselves. (One reason …

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It’s 1988 in Totalitarian Wales

Jac — Thu, 04 Aug 2016 20:29:01 +0000

LAWYERS It’s been an interesting few months here at Jac o’ the North Towers, what with solicitors’ letters, getting mentioned in the London dailies, and generally pissing off those who so richly deserve it. So let’s recap. The solicitors’ letters were, one to me, two to S C Cambria (which hosts my blog), and one to …

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Mill Bay Homes and Pembrokeshire Housing 2

Jac — Tue, 14 Jun 2016 21:00:35 +0000

This is just a brief update to my previous post. I have to be careful what I write because I’m being watched. No, honestly, this is not paranoia, certain people will be reading this very carefully. Therefore I hope you will understand that I have to be cautious, avoiding the injudicious phrase, the unintended calumny, otherwise …

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Mill Bay Homes and Pembrokeshire Housing

Jac — Tue, 07 Jun 2016 15:30:45 +0000

THREAT OF LEGAL ACTION Late in the afternoon of Tuesday May 31st I received an e-mail from Tracey Singlehurst-Ward of Hugh James Legal in Cardiff. Ms Singlehurst-Ward was of the opinion that I’d been a naughty boy for saying things about her clients, Pembrokeshire Housing and its ‘subsidiary’ Mill Bay Homes. I of course responded. Ms …

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Housing Associations – All Change?

Jac — Mon, 25 Apr 2016 19:42:40 +0000

I sense that changes are taking place in our housing associations. Maybe someone, somewhere, has at last realised that pouring obscene amounts of public money into fifty or so bodies, many of them overstaffed and / or inefficient may not be the best way of meeting the need for rented accommodation. In England, the process …

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