The HRA budget is bursting at the seams yet there is no forthcoming financial assistance being offered in return.

David McBride states in his latest news release that he has “high ambitions for council housing teams” but how can this be true when he was unaware that a statutory part of this said team is having its staff cut by 30 per cent, yet there has been significant investment in another team, with the appointing of 10 new housing officers and five caretakers post within the last few weeks within the housing enforcement team.

There is so little money, yet funds can be found to hold a “fun day” for residents of Drumry, or annual employee awards which is another waste of tax payers money. You are paid to do a job, then do it without the expectation of awards.

Three projects scheduled to be opened in Ashton View, Davidson Road and Jean Armour Drive have been sacrificed due to lack of funds. Davidson Road has been completely written off, with Jean Armour Drive being taken over by Alternatives.

Westcliff now has no or very little staff and now runs a high risk of not opening on time, resulting in a further financial drain on an already overspent budget.

Welfare Reform and Universal Credit have been blamed for the current crisis within the homeless team, however both have been forthcoming for some time now, therefore there is clearly a mismanagement from the beginning surrounding the budget — who is to blame??

Staff were called to a meeting and told this was the worst case scenario, however upon asking what other scenarios there were, staff were told there wasne_SSRqt any. Staff were then asked to note interest in positions beneath their current grades with no job descriptions openly available and also told their current grade could not be guaranteed for three years as normal re-deployment rules state. Trade Unions have now advised staff not to note interest as nothing has been agreed.

How are other local authorities managing their homeless service with the change in benefit legislation? Why do West Dunbartonshire Council Homeless Services receive no financial assistance from the HRA service, especially as the service is statutory and legislative and they now find themselves in this current sorry state of mis-managed affairs.

Very angry employee and local tax payer