Reporting local life since 1854 37pThursday, November 24, 2011

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ARREARS: Assistantdirector of housingservices Val Bourne.

Hundreds of homes tochoose from: Inside

P RO P E RT Y

Inquiry intohospital deathDETECTIVES areinvestig ating the death of a 57-year-old woman at a scandal-hit NHS hospital.

The patient died on October13 at Stafford Hospital, whichis the subject of an ongoingpublic inquiry after reports ofappalling levels of care andhigh death rates.

Staffordshire Police said apost-mortem examination wasinconclusive and tests wereunder way to establish a causeof death. A force spokesmansaid: “Officers are conductingan inquiry into the death of a57-year-old Cannock woman atthe hospital on October 13.”

Manjit Obhrai, medicaldirector at Mid StaffordshireNHS Foundation Trust, whichruns the hospital, said: “T hetrust reported this incident tothe coroner, who has askedthe police to investigate.”

A trust spokesman said twomembers of hospital staff hadbeen suspended.

COUNCIL IS OWED£3.6m IN RENT

Officers will be sent to tenants’ homes to stop debts spiralling

Thousands duefor lights showTHOUSANDS of people wereexpected in Hanley tonight forthe Christmas lights switch on.

X Factor winner MattCardle is headlining the event.

B r i t a i n’s Next Top Modelwinner Jade Thompson wasalso due to take to the stage inher home city, alongside S t o keCity and Port Vale footballers.

Councillor Terry Follows,Stoke-on-Trent Lord Mayor,will lead the countdown to theswitch-on, in FountainS q u a re.

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PulistakeslegaladviceBACKPAGE

Picture: Clare Jennings

BY ALEX CAMPBELLalex.campbell@thesentinel.co.uk

MORE than £3.6 million in unpaid coun-cil rent is owed to a cash-strappedauthority by 9,521 tenants.

Stoke-on-Trent City Council is tostart sending officers to tenants’ houseswithin three days of them falling intodebt to try to stop the arrears soaring.

Figures revealed today show arrearshave more than doubled from £1.6 mil-lion in 2006/07.

The council is now owed £1.8 millionby 5,667 current residents; at an averageof £318 each.

It is also chasing £1.8 millionowed by 3,854 former residents;more than £467 each.

Stoke-on-Trent has 19,000 coun-cil houses, with 3,200 people onwaiting lists.

News of the soaring rent arrearscomes days after the authorityrevealed its £24 million savingsprogramme which plans to

shut care homes, increase council taxand lead to hundreds of redundancies.

Rent arrears have spiralled since thecouncil centralised collections fiveyears ago and began relying on com-puters to send out warning letters.

Val Bourne, assistant director ofhousing services, said: “The connectionwith tenants was taken away.

“It became very much an automatedprocess, made worse by a reductionin staff.

“Within days an officer will nowknock on the door and talk to people

about why they are not paying theirrent instead of letting it drag on for

weeks and become a problem theyd o n’t want to face.

“We don’t want to evict people.We want them to keep their ten-a n c i e s. ”

A review of rent collection by

Vanguard Consulting found there were111 stages in the council’s recoveryp ro c e s s, but only 15 steps were neces-s a r y.

And warning letters were routinelybeing sent to tenants with direct debitagreements; even though rent wasbeing automatically paid within days.

Under the new system housingofficers will be retrained, moved to thecouncil’s Local Centres, and made tovisit tenants as soon as they slip behindon payments to discuss payment plans.

The policy will be introduced acrossthe city from December after a trial inparts of Goldenhill, Tunstall, Sandyfordand Chell.

The Sentinel revealed last week howup to £9 million in unpaid council taxwill be sold as a package to debt man-agement companies who will send inbailiffs to recover it.

Independent councillor Randy Con-teh said: “The reality is we need to getthe rent arrears debt down and not justintervene, but stop it happening.”

Councillor Dave Conway, leader of theopposition City Independents, said theauthority must not give up on collectingrent it is already owed.

The council said it would continue topursue the arrears through the courts.

Mr Conway added: “A mortgagelender wouldn’t write off £3.6 millionand neither should the council.”

Jim Gibson, chairman of Chell HeathRe s i d e n t s ’ Association, is a councilhouse tenant himself and always payshis rent on time.

He said: “If they are offering help andadvice as well, then anything that pre-vents someone losing their home is agood thing. There are genuine cases.

“But people shouldn’t be allowed tomilk the system. It surprises me thatthe council has allowed this to go on.”

Should tenants be evicted for failingto pay their rent? Email us at letters@thesentinel.co.uk

Comment: Page 10

FOLLOWTHE STAR:MattCardle willswitch onHanley’slights.

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