Let’s do our bit for the World and our Neighbourhoods
18 January 2010
Like everybody else my thoughts this week have been dominated by the events in Haiti.
It is very upsetting that people who have already suffered so much over many years through real deprivation, poor governance and corruption can also suffer such a great natural disaster as the recent earthquake. The sheer scale of human misery and the loss of life cannot fail to upset all observers. I, like everybody else, hope that the international aid efforts can provide some much needed help and respite for those Haitians who have survived.
It is heartening that survivors were still being found over the weekend, although the likelihood of more, obviously, diminishes with time. It seems that, according to recent reports 200,000 people may have died – which is just awful.
Safety issues and the world around us are, as I have said, at the forefront of people's thoughts at these times and I also find myself thinking of what is ahead of us if we don't do something urgently about global warming. We have had Copenhagen but if we don't deliver on the ground natural disasters will become even more common with effects like those we are seeing in Haiti.
Given that housing is a major source of CO2 emissions we have a duty to 'Act on CO2' and we certainly take that responsibility seriously at LMH. Over the coming year we will be looking to build upon our approach at the Daneville Estate, which won the HCA's Low Carbon Award, with further 'retro-fitting' to our stock. We will look to work with Government, the City Council, our tenants and others to do our small part and we hope that others do likewise.
On a local safety point, we have made huge progress since transfer on ensuring that our tenants have gas appliances which are safe. We have had 100% of our properties either with safety certificates or in the legal system for some time and we are very near to having every single property of ours with a current safety certificate. This shows that the hard work done by both our housing management and technical teams pays real dividends for our tenants.
If you want to make a donation to the international effort for Haiti, follow this link: www.dec.org.uk. Lets all do our bit locally and wider a field!!!
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