THE BIG RETORT

Lewisham Homes was just three years into its tenure when, in September 2010, the arms length management organisation (ALMO) posted a letter which read: ' D ear Homeowner.  Lewisham Council and Lewisham Homes do not inspect the inside of your property or make any necessary safety adaptations to your property ". (Emphasis added.) So why has the council's rabid housing enforcer placed its bullyboy jackboots across leaseholder thresholds?  TheBigRetort Lewisham Homes has called for an avalanche of (so-called) improvements to its housing stock. Recently the amateur managing agent has gone  way "bespoke". U nder the watchful eye of Mrs Hilary Barber (above) its Director of Corporate Services. This "n ecessary" (is it really?) fire-safety equipment has been placed into 1400 street properties along with a raft of additional unnecessary improvements... e arning Mrs Barber the honorific  Baroness Barber of Breachlease .   Barber is threatening court actio...

Leaseholders and taxpayers in London have been hoodwinked into paying thousands of pounds for fire-safety measures that are 'not to the necessary standard'. According to details contained in board minutes of Lewisham Homes at least. A discovery that may see the arms-length management organisation in the dock...again.   TheBigRetort exclusive. In my last post I reported that Andrew Potter CEO of Lewisham Homes was due to decamp to greener pastures at Hastoe Housing Association. Meanwhile... back in concrete city, board papers dated August 2017 reveal that six thousand two hundred composite fire-safety doors recently installed into properties managed by his former south-east London Almo may not be up to the necessary fire safety standard . The shock finding, unearthed by TheBigRetort,  follows threats by Lewisham Homes to prosecute leaseholders if they do not change their own flat entrance doors - which the managing agent has “deemed” unsafe....

Doddy with wife Anne in The Sun newspaper Your intrepid investigative reporter reveals the source of Doddy's Dosh and his missing millions.  It was during the Christmas period of 1980/81 at Birmingham's Alexandra theatre. The panto was Dick Whittington. The Big Retort encountered that master of merriment then simply Mister Ken Dodd playing Idle Jack. Also in the cast was Jeffrey Holland, who had recently climbed to fame as Spike in the hit BBC tv comedy series Hi-de- Hi. And of course, somewhat further down the celebrity line-up - in the various guises of Dream People, Sailors, and Moroccan Guards - yours truly.  TheBigRetort  looks back on the king of comedy's licence to print the millions that the tax man never got his hands on... and reveals where it eventually ended up.  The panto was a sell-out over its 6 week season. With matinees, the money going in and out of the cash tills was, I reckon,  in the tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of pou...