Tower Hamlets Housing Action Trust

After my 5 year contract with The Children’s Society came to an end I went to work at Tower Hamlets Housing Action Trust (THHAT). Housing Action Trusts (HAT) were non-departmental public bodies, set up to redevelop some of the poorest council housing estates in England’s inner-city suburbs. Six Housing Action Trusts were established under the Housing Act 1988.

The interview experience was unique for me in that I did the same interview twice; the second for Board members, one who actually fell asleep. It’s hard to feel you are being fresh when you are asked exactly the same questions. I have been faced with a member of the interview panel falling asleep twice in my life to date – the second time the person had a disability so I forgive them. I want to go and shake them, but feel unable to do so. Anyway, on this particular occasion it did not affect the outcome.

THHAT used consultants for everything. It was disempowering as staff, but in some ways interesting because I worked with some very interesting minds. I remember entrepreneurial Stephen Thake (London Metropolitan University), the principled Perry Walker from the New Economics Foundation and the quirky Jon Aldenton of the Environment Trust especially. Andrew Mawson, who was the driving force behind Bromley by Bow was a Board member. I was initially the Economic Development Lead officer and then got promoted to lead the Community and Economic Development department during its transition to a Community Trust – Bow People’s Trust. When I google this now it comes up as a recruitment agency.

There were many other firsts for me in this job. It was the first and only time I have had to deal with an employee with a serious drink problem, the first and only time I regularly got rung up by someone’s wife, complaining I was not nice to her husband and in fact being very abusive. I tried to manage as I had been taught within The Children’s Society and it did not go down well. I alienated my boss who was ‘managing’ the process at arm’s length, I guess because by my management of his staff I was effectively criticising his previous choices and he felt I was turning his staff against him. There was a culture of people ‘overworking’ long hours and then going off sick/stressed for days. Employees did their own thing. In the end I had a grievance brought against me, (at least I think that was what it was) but it did not go through proper processes and it was luck rather than planning that I actually brought a former work colleague in to the meeting with me. It got thrown out because the complainant was documented by other colleagues as being personally and publically abusive to me – the sort of stuff that would get you the sack instantly these days.

In the end they appointed a new Trust Director who was also a very interesting, charismatic character. He came from working in Belfast and we had an amazing field visit over there. I remember the wall paintings, huge barbed wire fences and a catholic priest who was treated like a god. The director used to invite all the staff round his house for dinner on a regular basis.

I am not really sure what I achieved there except some of the staff liked me a lot and I looked after them. I still have a lovely framed poem one of them wrote about me! I got the Economic Development Strategy produced, though a consultant actually wrote the words. They got their bonuses, but I didn’t. I learnt from that not to set yourself too higher targets. I got to know that part of East London well, fell in love with Colombia Road flower market and grew up as a manager.