The Evening Times article can be seen by clicking here, clicking on the headline above or at the end of this piece.
The Scottish Housing Regulator’s report can be seen by clicking here
or, as documents on the Regulator’s website inexplicably vanish after a time,
download the full report below.
If you have the time and/or inclination, read the Regulator’s report. It’s an eye opener but not so much to those Toryglen residents who were involved in questioning Thistle Housing and its inept management. Not that anyone thought it worthwhile to let residents know of its publication.
That management constantly disparaged residents, called them liars, ignored them and all the time, millions of pounds were quietly disappearing as Thistle management locked themselves away in their bunker in Glenmore Avenue hoping residents would give up but, at the same time, preparing for the inevitable. By that time, they knew, all too well, that the tenacious residents were not going to back down …and they didn’t.
Residents were trouble making liars, eh? A bit late now but they have been vindicated by the publication of this report and indeed, all f the previous interim reports as the depths Thistle management plumbed became ever dark.
The Regulator’s report is an exercise in utter condemnation of those who had been running Thistle as their own baliwick and piggy bank. Of course, it’s not the entire truth. The whole story would condemn those in power elsewhere who allowed Thistle’s failure to go unchecked especially as they had been advised constantly by residents. To gain a greater insight into the self seeking arrogance and gross ineptitude of Thistle’s management, elderly all pals lackey committee members and the sub standard inarticulate staff, again, read the the report. It’s an eye opener but not so much to those Toryglen residents who were involved in questioning Thistle Housing and its shockingly incompetent management. Not that anyone thought it worthwhile to let residents know of its publication.
Where was the Regulator previously? Certainly not regulating as these people in Thistle (and other failed associations) evidently had free rein to do whatever they liked, faking returns to the Regulator and conjuring up fairy tale statistics.
Every other similar area in Glasgow, built in the 1950s/1960s, has benefitted from new replacement housing, homes suitable for the young and elderly, roads and investment. Toryglen? Nothing. Thistle built not as much as a shed. Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Such is Thistle’s legacy and their putrid twenty year long stain on Toryglen.
their arrogance, ineptitude and sheer ignorance
It’s just a shame and a waste of so many opportunities that residents were ignored by Thistle and more importantly, the Scottish Housing Regulator. At no time were residents invited to offer their experiences, fears and expectations to the Regulator. Any discussions were always at the behest of residents’ insistence.
The placemen from the Regulator who finally took charge of Thistle ignored residents as their brief was simply to make the problem go away at any cost as so many in power had been ridiculed and found out by this long, sad sorry tale.
Toryglen residents, by any measure, have been treated shabbily even more so as some senior management and staff who were well aware, implicated in the failure and were part of the records shredding, are still behind Sanctuary’s doors which, until they are gone, the stench of corruption and failure remains – it will be forever Thistle. Acknowledgement, however, has to go to those in Thistle who provided a constant stream of information in a desperate expectation of retaining their employment should Thistle be taken over, one of whom remains in Sanctuary. That’s what happened when they ended up fighting like rats in a sack blaming each other and stabbing each other in the back.
An extract from the Regulator’s report:
“Thistle ultimately failed to recognise that it is accountable to tenants, residents and other key stakeholders and failed to manage its accountabilities”.
“Thistle’s issues were exacerbated by its unwillingness to listen to concerns raised by tenants, residents and ourselves. It failed to accept that these concerns were evidence of weaknesses in management and governance and was unwilling to accept responsibility and take swift and appropriate action to put things right. Consultation carried out during the Strategic Review identified a real disconnect between the views of Thistle’s staff and the views of their tenants and residents on the quality of customer service”.
“Following intervention, some elected members of the governing body and the leadership failed to work openly and co-operatively with the statutory appointees and ourselves and this hampered implementation of improvement actions”.
It eventually dawned on them that their arrogance of many years, that their heads were heading for the chopping block as the Statutory Manager got closer to the truth but what did they do? They gave the Statutory Managers no assistance, were completely obstructive, were constantly mendacious and to cap it all, arranged for the shredding of association documents and the deletion of email records. Hardly the actions of innocent (but clearly dim) people.
The Regulator’s comment in the report, “The damage to Thistle’s reputation also had the potential to damage the reputation of the sector” says it all. In this one comment, the major concern of the Regulator was its own failed reputation for allowing incompetent people in housing associations ‘get away with it’. The Regulator has now, apparently, tightened up its regulatory powers as a consequence of the Thistle debacle, the most involved case they have even had to tackle.
The end eventually came to Thistle but not before millions vanished with the management scurrying away without any legal sanction and without penalty. Although there was undoubted corruption, records shredded, work inexplicably paid for but never done, backhanders paid and received, too many fingers in the housing pie for that to happen.
Thistle’s long standing chairperson/vice chairperson, Brenda Wilson, resigned her position claiming that £500,000 had been spent by the association (and hence residents) on various ‘consultants’ and reports, the results of which have never been seen.
Mrs Wilson states, “There is not one report, piece of paper or email left from the time of that first statutory manager. He was in place for nearly 10 months, and for all that time the Association paid his daily rate, weekly travel costs from Devon and living costs in Glasgow. The overall cost must have been well over £120,000 with, as far as we can see, little or nothing to show for it“.
Immediately, we have £500,000 for these so-called reports, we have £560,000 supposedly spent on garden renovations, we have £300,000 retained by Thistle to make good window cills – none of this is accounted for, the work never done but just simply vanished. More here.
The Regulator’s report also stated, “Thistle had also made a payment to the major works programme contractor that exceeded the contractual amount due without having first taken appropriate legal or professional advice”.
Why did they pay E.ON extra (Fixed Priced Contract??) for work which was clearly substandard and where did that money go? Broon envelopes?
Was that why the previous director, disGrace McColgan vanished for over a year supposedly on sick leave coincidentally just two days before the Regulator’s staff marched into Thistle’s office? She eventually got the boot but not before grabbing everything she could aided and abbetted by her partner in crime, Daniella Sprott, the “Ah’m no technical” profoundly incapable and bullying Operations Manager, who clung on to her employment by the tips of her claws but now since also shown the door (and subsequently somehow managed to get a position, hopefully, ‘non technical’, in a North Glasgow housing association – lucky them).
Was that why Jim Naismith, Thistle’s Finance Manager quickly went on long term sick leave as the Statutory Manager was breathing down his neck (when all of the office door locks were swiftly and immediately changed on Naismith’s departure and who ultimately disappeared without trace when the Regulator’s Statutory Manager was getting closer to the truth and having discovered multiple records dumped into boxes, many missing and shredded?
Money has disappeared from Thistle Housing without explanation. Records have been shredded, email accounts deleted and server backups have been lost and from the Evening Times today, “Despite repeated questioning, none of the parties involved have admitted to how much tax payer and resident cash was squandered by the project”.
This was no simple mismanagement but reeks of an amateurish but deliberate cover up. There is no other other option but to request the Housing Minister, Shona Robison MSP, to call in Police Scotland for a full investigation into the loss of residents’ funds and after six years, the still incomplete Major Works Programme, otherwise the report from the Scottish Housing Regulator is nothing short of a whitewash in an effort to protect those in power who were entrusted by Toryglen residents and who should have known otherwise.
The rub is that no one wanted Thistle to go as it was the shareholders’ and residents’ association. All that was required was the ejection of those who caused the problems, hid the truth and lied constantly but seemingly, Thistle was so corrupt and as it had highlighted the Scottish Housing Regulator’s shortcomings, it was sacrificed, given away, offloaded to save the reputations of others.
The main point is that despite all the promises from Sanctuary (who in the guise of Campbell Kinloch their Head of Housing, laughingly stated that Thistle Housing did not fail), the rectification of the multiple Major Works Programme faults, eleven months and a week after Sanctuary was gifted the assets of Thistle, the faulty and dangerous roofs, the misaligned gutters, the inappropriate window cills, the cracking, sodden and stained roughcasting all remain despite Sanctuary’s undertakings to finish the job.
From the Regulator – “The independent review of the works programme in October 2019 confirmed that there were significant unquantified liabilities in relation to a range of necessary roof, render and window remedial works“. So, where are the remedial works promised by Sanctuary?
Their stance now seems to be that anything that happened prior to their takeover of Thistle on 1 March 2021 stays with Thistle. It’s not Sanctuary’s responsibility.
more info
Yes, Sanctuary is replacing the central heating systems, kitchens and bathrooms in its own properties (and apparently there are so many problems there – burst pipes, flooded homes, rendered walls (paid for by owners and grant money) stained by lazily emptied boilers, rubbish strewn everywhere) but this was work that had to be done in any case as various property installations are written off after so many years so as to attract the tax free ‘charitable’ status. What Sanctuary is doing is no gift. It’s an obligation which Thistle would have had to tackle.
What is past is prologue?
The ET Article
Tuesday, 8th February 2022
A SCANDAL-HIT housing association over-paid contractors on a bungled major works programme, it has emerged.
It has now come to light that failed Thistle Housing Association – which botched upgrades to 700 Toryglen homes – paid contractor E-on extra money without taking legal advice.
The Glasgow Times first started telling of residents’ woes in 2016 when issues first emerged about the handling of energy upgrade works paid for with £8.5 million of Scottish Government and Glasgow City Council money.
Despite repeated questioning, none of the parties involved have admitted to how much tax payer and resident cash was squandered by the project.
Now a new Scottish Housing Regulator report into the fiasco reads: “Thistle had also made a payment to the major works programme contractor that exceeded the contractual amount due without having first taken appropriate legal or professional advice.
“This had adverse implications for Thistle in a subsequent contractual dispute.”
Despite attempts by the watchdog to reverse Thistle’s fortunes, the beleaguered organisation was eventually transferred to Sanctuary Scotland, a larger social landlord.
Sanctuary can only say that the financial dealings were before it became involved and Thistle no longer exists.
At the time, the organisation told the Glasgow Times the works would generate no additional costs, despite initially being predicted to take 12 weeks and then running for more than four years
The regulator’s report adds: “Thistle told stakeholders that there would be no additional costs as a result of the required remedial works to the properties included in the major works programme. “The independent review of the works programme in October 2019 confirmed that there were significant unquantified liabilities in relation to a range of necessary roof, render and window remedial works.
“These costs were not accounted for in Thistle’s plans.”
The Scottish Housing Regulator has given an update on its findings regarding the Southside housing association.
A report gives detail on multiple, wide ranging failures, including the financial issues at Thistle.
It further adds: “Thistle did not understand its role as a property factor and did not have structures and systems in place which distinguished clearly between this and its landlord function. “Deficiencies in Thistle’s approach meant that it was liable to factored owners for the quality of work in the major works programmes.
“As a result, Thistle carried a significant amount of owners’ debt from both the previous and current major works programmes, which it had made little effort to recover.
“It also covered the significant cost of works to reinstate owners’ gardens damaged during the works programme.”
The Scottish Housing Regulator first stepped in to quiz Thistle on the major works programme in November 2016 and in August 2018 appointed a statutory manager and five members to Thistle’s governing body.
Interventions failed and in October 2019 Thistle decided it was in the best interests of residents to seek a transfer.
The transfer to Sanctuary Scotland was completed in March 2021.
Energy-saving works in Toryglen should have taken 12 weeks to carry out but were still underway four years later, causing stress and anxiety to residents.
Thanks to campaigning from locals, issues were brought to public attention in this newspaper and the watchdog parachuted in experienced staff to support inept workers.
The report repeatedly mentions “negative media attention” and that Thistle failed to report this to the regulator.
It says: “Only 6% of around 700 properties had been finished by the intended November 2016 completion date” and makes mention of gas leaks at the site, which we reported at the time.
The report adds: “Thistle had not reported the gas leaks or the negative media attention to us and its governing body in accordance with the statutory notifiable events guidance.
“Thistle’s approach had severely damaged its relationship with local residents and attracted continuing negative media attention.
“Dealing with the media coverage and resident concerns used a significant amount of Thistle’s resources which would otherwise have been focused on addressing its issues.
“The damage to Thistle’s reputation also had the potential to damage the reputation of the sector.”
Now that Thistle has been taken over by Sanctuary Scotland, it is no longer registered with the watchdog and the report is the final document to be published about the long running saga.
A spokesperson for Sanctuary Scotland said: “We are continuing to work closely with residents in Toryglen in line with the commitment provided during the transfer of Thistle Housing.
“Millions of pounds are being invested to improve not just housing in the area, but also the community itself.”
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