Charitable housing associations resist evicting people involved in last week's riots

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Charitable housing associations resist evicting people involved in last week's riots 4

Governance | Vibeka Mair | 16 Aug 2011

Sir Stephen Bubb, chief executive of Acevo, has said many charitable housing associations which are members of Acevo will resist evicting rioters or family of rioters involved in the disturbances which rocked the UK last week.

Last week, Conservative-run Wandsworth Council became the first local authority to serve an eviction notice to the mother of an 18-year-old boy charged with rioting.

On his personal blog, Bubb said that many housing association Acevo members had resisted what he called a “simplistic eviction approach”.

“How fortunate it is that most social housing is provided by the voluntary sector,” he said. “And not grandstanding burghers of some local council.”

An Acevo spokeswoman advised that it was not clear yet if this was a member-wide consensus.

Further, Acevo is having a meeting of CEOs today to have an initial discussion about recent events and what the sector’s response should be. It will be working with NCVO on this.

NCVO response

NCVO has a meeting planned on the 14th September with community voluntary services organisations across the UK and the Office for Civil Society’s strategic partners.

The meeting will explore how the sector can help communities rebuild; how the sector can help policymakers reflect on the causes of the disturbances; and what support affected charities and social enterprises need to get back on their feet.

NCVO also has a new online space where voluntary organisations can contribute blogs and comments about their experiences and views on last week’s events.

Elsewhere, a coalition of volunteering umbrella bodies wrote to Prime Minister David Cameron last week offering help over the coming weeks.

Volunteering England, BTCV, CSV and youth volunteering charity v said in the letter that the partnership was poised to work with local communities to deliver solutions.

Directory: Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations (ACEVO) | BTCV | National Council of Voluntary Organisations (NCVO) | Volunteering England
Who's Who: Sir Stephen Bubb

Place a comment

Barbara
17 Aug 2011

In response to Simon's comments: It's easy to be critical re responses to riot situations and that it not helpful. Simon offered no constructive solution.

[Reply]

Jonathan Sillett
17 Aug 2011
Response to [Barbara]

Surely no solution is better than a 'solution' which actually makes things worse?

[Reply]

Simon Hebditch
17 Aug 2011

The knee jerk reactions to the riots continue apace from this government. Evictions from council property smacks of collective punishment. What about the potential impact on other children in a family? Homelessness on our streets will grow as a result. Also, we are going to be inundated with clearly bonkers sentences handed down by gung ho judges and magistrates.

[Reply]

Stolen
16 Aug 2011

All very wonderful responses by these charity infrastructure bodies.

But all aimed at symptoms and more like overseas aid than solutions to underlying problems.

[Reply]

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