New MP did not declare directorship of company
Hamilton resigns from housing contractor for city council
THE city’s new Labour MP and senior city councillor, Paulette Hamilton, failed to declare her link to a supported accommodation firm with a council contract at a crucial meeting, it has been revealed.
Cllr Hamilton, recently elected as MP for Erdington, has since resigned from the company.
She had been serving as a nonexecutive director of housing association Ashley Community and Housing which provides rooms and support for refugees.
But Cllr Hamilton failed to declare the connection at a council cabinet meeting in December when it was agreed to allocate £1.5 million to fund a second year of the city’s successful Afghan resettlement scheme.
Ashley Community and Housing (ACH) was named in a report to that meeting as a recipient of funding, for providing employment services.
All those present at the meeting, including Cllr Hamilton, were offered an opportunity to declare any interests – two councillors did so but not
Cllr Hamilton. Nor did she declare an interest at the start of the agenda item.
Cllr Hamilton resigned her directorship at Ashley Community and Housing last Thursday, the day after the Post asked her about the matter.
There is no suggestion of any wrongdoing by Ashley Community and Housing, nor that the councillor, in failing to make the declaration, was intending to gain an advantage for the company or herself.
Prior to her resignation, Cllr Hamilton spoke to the Post.
At that time her failure to declare her interest at the December meeting had not emerged, and she was only asked about whether she was satisfied she had been open with voters on the Erdington campaign trail about her link to the company.
She said: “I want to do the best for my constituents.
“This throws doubt on my integrity. “I know it’s not meant to but it does, so I want to be totally clear on this. If I thought I had done something wrong I would be the first to put my hands up and say ‘I have screwed up here’.”
She said she believed she had properly informed the council she had become an ACH board member back in April 2020 and this certainly does appear on her register of interests.
She added: “I don’t know really why I am being attacked like this.
“As soon as I went onto their board I put it in the register of interests. I have not hidden it.
“I have done everything I was supposed to do. The company has no properties in Erdington.
“If I should have declared it anywhere else I hold my hands up and apologise.”
She also denied any suggestion that she had ‘hidden’ this connection from voters in Erdington, where the issue of supported housing was a hot topic. She said: “I have always said I am not opposed to HMOs and exempt accommodation. What we need is for the legislation behind it to be strengthened so poor landlords can be dealt with quickly.”
She pledged the issue would be top of her list of concerns when she entered Parliament.
The company’s chairman John Wells said it meant the loss of an “exemplary board member”.
Mr Wells, from ACH, said he believed Cllr Hamilton’s resignation was probably intended to try to spare embarrassment to ACH or its clients and added he hoped the issue around her declaration of interest would be quickly resolved, adding he was sure it had been ‘an oversight’.
Birmingham City Council has referred the case to its internal monitoring officer, acting city solicitor Satinder Sahota. It said it would be “inappropriate to comment”.
Mr Wells said the MP’s resignation was a huge blow and added: “She is a very honourable, helpful lady and I totally respect the work she has done for us, it has been exemplary and I hope this sorts itself out.”