Parental rights case to be decided

The report in Saturday's The Herald ('Parents lose court fight to stop new headteacher taking up school post', Herald, 15 August 2009) contains a number of important inaccuracies concerning a GLC client.

Firstly, as the old saying goes reports of our demise have been greatly exaggerated. Our client has not lost. The case was only raised in the Court of Session on Thursday and on Friday we obtained first orders for service but our request for interim interdict was refused.

An interim order is granted before the merits of the case are looked at and is based upon a 'balance of convenience' test. The judge considered that as the new headteacher had already signed an employment contract and had taken up post the balance lay in favour of Glasgow City Council.

However, the suggestion that 'a judge has ruled the city council's defence, that employment law overruled the 2006 legislation was valid' is incorrect. The Scottish Schools (Parental Involvement) Act 2006 cannot be 'overruled' by an employment contract. Such a suggestion is the equivalent of saying you could commit a crime because your employer required you to do so.

The 2006 Act requires education authorities to consult with parents through the Parent Council before appointing a headteacher. Whether a short telephone call saying you have a new headteacher constitutes 'consultation' remains to be decided.

Likewise the question of whether Glasgow City Council has acted unlawfully, and will ultimately have to undo its appointments and start over, is a live one that can only be determined at the forthcoming hearing of our client's petition for judicial review.

As far as Govan Law Centre is aware this will be the first test of the parental involvement legislation before the courts in Scotland. We have instructions to bring other cases concerning other schools affected.

There is an important principle at stake. The Scottish Parliament has required education authorities to place parents at the heart of important decisions which affect the lives of their children.

If that law can be reduced to a series of cursory phone calls after decisions have been made then the will of Parliament will have been thwarted. Furthermore if parents are an afterthought in the minds of senior Glasgow education officials then that is a malaise which must be tackled.

Strong, successful schools need the involvement of parents. The Scottish Parliament knew that in passing the 2006 Act.

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Second repossession wave fear

A second wave of home repossessions is expected to hit Scotland, it was claimed yesterday, after figures showed a drop in the number of people across the UK who have lost their houses.

Campaigners and housing experts warned of a "perfect storm" gathering ahead, as unemployment continues to rise and a possible end to low interest rates could result in higher mortgage payments for homeowners, pushing more into financial difficulties.

Full story in Saturday's The Herald.

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Glasgow factor writes off £10,000

Glasgow property factor Walker Sandford (WS) has written off £10,760 in charges consisting of monthly compound interest, weekly 'reminder' letters costing £15 plus VAT, and an assortment of legal fees, for a Glasgow client of Govan Law Centre (GLC).

The client's original bill had been £536 but it quickly mushroomed into a debt of several thousands of pound. WS commenced an action for payment of debt at Glasgow Sheriff Court however this was defended by GLC solicitor Lorraine Barrie. The action was dropped after WS agreed that £536 was the correct sum due.

However, after dismissal of the action, WS continued to add compound interest and charges to the earlier disputed bill. That bill saw interest charges in excess of £300 being added every month - for an original debt of £536!

GLC applied for civil legal aid to bring an action for declarator and interdict in the Court of Session, however before this could be completed WS wrote off the entire 'bill' of £10,760. The client now has a zero balance.

GLC believes Walker Sandford's aggressive practice of imposing compound interest and penalty charges might well be unlawful at Scots common law and in terms of the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contract Regulations 1999. However, only a court can determine this matter, and Walker Sandford continue to deny their practices are unlawful.

Until the matter is resolved conclusively by a senior court, customers and advisors can obtain further information from GLC's website on Property Management Problems.

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Poverty of opportunity

Scotland's Justice Secretary's claim ("MacAskill: Justice in Scotland is sexist", The Herald, August 12) does not sit well with Dr Cyrus Tata's comments in the background analysis in the same edition ("Is the justice system failing women whose lives have gone off the rails?"). Dr Tata says the evidence for claims of systemic sexism is "limited" and "mixed". Dr Tata recommends proper research.

If Mr MacAskill is going to talk about discrimination, he should speak about the elephant in our court room: the relationship between poverty of opportunity and recidivist crime. People living in areas of deprivation are two and a half times more likely to be the victim of a crime than the average rate for Scotland. Domestic abuse is twice as prevalent among those on low incomes. Male prisoners are four times as likely to come from areas of poverty and inequality.

The fact a child grows up with perhaps one or two generations of parents who have never worked and have no aspiration creates a poverty of opportunity for that child. If the parents are junkies, steal or get out of their faces every day, how hard is it for that child to escape that life?

In truth, we park people in prison and park them in ghettoes in between periods of incarceration. How should Scotland address this dilemma?

Mr MacAskill knows we have a growing prison population and a dearth of prison space. He does not want to build more prisons. While overcrowding would be eased by forcing the court not to jail people who would otherwise be sentenced to six months or less, how does this further the public interest?

If Scotland is to extinguish the blaze of repeat offending, we need well-funded schemes which sheriffs could offer to convicted young offenders, such as the chance to escape jail subject to strict curfews and successful participation in a co-ordinated scheme personal to them.

A radical solution would entail co-ordinated addiction services, anger management, social skills and, critically, the opportunity to learn a trade or skill, or gain educational qualifications, with placements with employers. The opportunity to secure a job and have a decent life is one sure way to prevent offending and poverty.

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Treasury Committee challenges mortgage arrears fees

The House of Commons Treasury Select Committee has attacked the way some mortgage lenders levy high charges on customers who fall into arrears.

The Treasury Committee said this practice was "intolerable" and demanded that the Financial Services Authority (FSA) put a stop to it.

The committee also said some lenders were breaking the rules by using repossession as a first, rather than last, resort with borrowers in arrears.

The FSA said it would publish proposals this autumn after a widespread review. Full story on BBC Business here. See GLC's mini-site on mortgage arrears charges here.

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Time for change at GHA Ltd

Council-run housing in Glasgow was huge, bureaucratic and saddled with historic post-war debt, but it was democratic. Who would have suggested we take that huge public body and write of its £1bn debt, inject £900m of public subsidy, and create an equally massive, yet undemocratic, private company?

Fast forward six years from Glasgow's housing stock transfer and that is what has come to pass with the Glasgow Housing Association Ltd (GHA). It is essentially the council without the councillors.

Stock transfer was all about the creation of smaller, community controlled, housing associations. Associations which could respond to local need. Associations run by tenants for tenants.

The notion of 'community ownership' was the unique selling point of housing stock transfer. Tenants voted for it, and tenants are entitled to it. The only stumbling block is the Board of the GHA.

Govan Law Centre believes the GHA is a ship lost at sea. The failure of the GHA lies in its Board and its senior management team. They have the wrong vision, the wrong ethos, and are travelling in the wrong direction. They must be pushed overboard.

Scotland's Housing Minister can use his statutory powers to appoint a new Board and senior management team.

The GHA is bankrolled by the taxpayer. Taxpayer and tenants are entitled to demand that the GHA is transformed into genuine community-controlled housing associations across the City as a matter of urgency.

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Help to prevent homelessness

Glasgow City Council has published new practical and accessible advice guides for homeowners, private sector tenants, and housing association tenants facing repossession or eviction.

The advice guides were written by Govan Law Centre for the Glasgow Homelessness Partnership and are available as PDFs by clicking on the links above.

Glasgow City Council has also announced it will publish its 'section 11' data (i.e. information on the number of new eviction or repossession actions commenced by named landlords and secured lenders)on a quarterly basis here.

The top 5 'worst' landlords and lenders in terms of the number of new cases raised in Glasgow for the period April to June 2009 were as follows:

Housing Association - New Eviction Actions
1. GHA 83
2. Thenew HA 16
3. Govan HA 13
4. Glen Oaks HA 11
5. Northview HA 8/Elderpark HA 8

Lenders - New Mortgage Repossession Actions
1. Bank of Scotland plc 66
2. GE Money 41
3. RBS 30
4. Platform Funding Ltd 24
5. Southern Pacific Mortgage Ltd 20

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