Answers are needed

The way in which those in the upper management at Gentoo have conducted their business in recent years has certainly kept the Home and Communities Agency busy.

Concerns over the performance of Gentoo were highlighted in 2014 when it was downgraded over value for money by the HCA, which had found that the company had failed to identify tax liabilities nor adequately identified the extent of the risk exposure from all it business activities, with losses incurred in some of the unregistered subsidiaries.

Non-social housing activity as a whole had produced a “substantial net deficit”.

The lack of success of its various enterprises beyond its remit of providing social housing was a key issue here.

This downgrading was retained into 2015.

Fast forward to 2017 and the HCA has some more criticisms over different issues; this time in the way Gentoo is operated, downgrading the company as noncompliant after a report said it “does not meet our governance requirements” and adding that there “are issues of serious regulatory concerns.”

There are several paragraphs of severe criticism with perhaps the most telling stating, “the board exercised weak governance and internal control agreeing executive contracts and severance payments to outgoing executives, adding that in doing so the Board has failed to safeguard its reputation and that of the sector”.

In the last few weeks it has been a case of musical chairs at the top level of Gentoo with all the comings and goings. This is obviously unsatisfactory as Gentoo is a very important employer in the city with hardworking staff. Much has gone wrong and questions also need to be asked as to the level of scrutiny that has existed at Gentoo by a board that includes three Sunderland City Councillors always from the majority Labour Party.

In addition this issue of adequate scrutiny applies equally to the adverse comments from the HCA when stating that Gentoo manages a “substantial number of homes”, that do not meet the Decent Homes Standard.

This after around 16 years of managing former council houses.

Over the years in my role as a councillor, with a past working experience in housing, I have tried to combine praise with criticism of the work carried-out by Gentoo.

However it is massively disappointing to read of these negative comments by the HCA of recent non-compliance at Gentoo as listed above.

They have been submitted far too frequently and are covering such a diversity of issues where shortcomings in policy and procedure has clearly been evident. Coun Michael Dixon, (Conservative), St Michael’s Ward