london's Pimlico Village Housing Cooperative has accused Westminster council of creating the crisis that led to the the co-op being taken over by the council.
David Rodgers, executive director of the Cooperative Development Society, which has been negotiating between the two parties, hit back at allegations of financial mismanagement at PVHC (HT 11 July, page 10). He said: "Westminster didn't step in. The cooperative decided it had no choice but to stop trading because Westminster failed to deal with disputes and then failed to pay the co-op's allowances. On 2 July £222,000 of allowances hadn't been paid by the council so PVHC ceased trading because to do otherwise would mean it was committing a criminal offence."

According to PVHC, one of the key disputes which has contributed to the financial problems has been caused by a shortfall in Westminster council's allowances for planned maintenance, repairs and renewals. Rodgers said an independent surveyor found "significant errors" in the asset register, on which allowances are based, and concluded that the shortfall in the allowance was in excess of £50,000 a year. The shortfall is said to date back to when the co-op was set up, meaning the calculations for the original allowances were "flawed".

Rodgers said: "If Westminster had accepted that responsibility, PVHC would not be insolvent." He said there had been "certain financial weaknesses" but said the council's assertion that millions of pounds were unaccounted for was untrue.

Westminster council said: "We made repeated attempts to come to a suitable arrangement with PVHC. We feel that there are still many unanswered questions as to management and expenditure and as we have gone through the accounts many more questions have emerged. We stand by our decision on this."

Source

Housing Today