Norwich housing boss evicted pensioners & moved in with boyfriend

[Gerrard Winstanley]

A £52,000-a-year housing chief was sacked last night after an
investigation by The Times found that she had shifted elderly people
from their sheltered homes and moved into one with her boyfriend at a
rent of £47 a week.


Kristine Reeves, housing chief who evicted old people, is sacked

January 10, 2009
Kristine Reeves, housing chief who evicted old people, is sacked
Dominic Kennedy and Richard Kerbaj

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article5485086.ece

A £52,000-a-year housing chief was sacked last night after an
investigation by The Times found that she had shifted elderly people
from their sheltered homes and moved into one with her boyfriend at a
rent of £47 a week.

When confronted on the doorstep of her home, with its mobility
handrail still intact, Kristine Reeves, 37, complained that the old
person's cottage she had taken was too small for a double bed and was
"really very cold. You couldn't swing a cat in it".

Pensioners complained that they missed their bungalows and were lonely
after being moved to other homes on the outskirts of Norwich.

City council officials decided that they should take the
decommissioned sheltered housing for themselves without ever informing
councillors and the Labour authority accused Ms Reeves of bringing it
into "severe disrepute". Ms Reeves, who bought a £190,000 house in
Norwich with a different partner four years ago, was head of
neighbourhood and strategic housing, and co-author of a report which
recommended destroying the 25 elderly people's homes at Greyhound
Opening in the city centre and replacing them with 200 flats and houses.

The tenants were rehoused and council officials took over the cottages
prior to demolition. The decision to let the homes to council staff
was taken even though Norwich has 7,589 households on its homes
waiting list. Former residents were distressed that the rent was cut
from the £69 a week they had paid, and that council staff were allowed
to live there with their partners. For the elderly, there had been a
rule that they had to live alone.

Half of the council workers who moved into the homes had jobs in the
housing department. They included Ms Reeves and her partner Graham
Ross, another senior housing officer. After the report in The Times
last month the city council gave them all notice to quit and said it
would board up the properties. An internal inquiry concluded that
council rules had been broken.

Ms Reeves was suspended and dismissed without notice after a
disciplinary hearing yesterday. Norwich City Council said: "Three
allegations were considered. As a consequence of these actions she has
brought the council into severe disrepute."