Back in January, I sat in a meeting with a rep from Places for People where we discussed the really poor communication between them and their tenants at N2 (Chadwick Court).

These tenants were delayed from moving in by issues relating to Places for People/InSpace building their houses in the wrong place, ie on Guided Busway land! They were delayed for several months and the communication was poor and incoherent...for quite a long time tenants were being told the delays were because of poor decorative finish that needed to be repaired - not exactly transparent!

At that January meeting we heard about a second block of houses built in the wrong place at K2, Starr End. The delays for this one are significant as well as the Guided Busway cannot simply give up the land, until they are sure it's not needed, and that section of the Busway hasn't had it's detailed design work done yet. At that time, the earliest this could be resolved was May or June, but we were assured the delays weren't a problem as no residents had been appointed for these properties.

Well just a few weeks later I was contacted by a future tenant at K2 asking if I knew why there were delays with the moving date, and at a South Cambs Scrutiny Committee meeting last week, it emerged that there are a total of 6 tenants affected by this latest building cock-up.

Now I'll be charitable and assume that all these K2 tenants were appointed after the January assurances, but if so, how can any of these tenants have any other view of moving dates than May or June at the earliest? They just don't seem to be told what's going on - are they being told anything or the wrong thing? Hopefully someone will comment and let us all know.

At that Scrutiny meeting, it turns out that the delays are not restricted to these blocks either -

• InSpace have built the houses on L3 in the wrong place as well (a third block of houses!) with 10 tenants affected.
• 31 future tenants at E1 (Places for People on corner of Chieftain Way and Ring Fort Road) will probably have to wait until June now because the electricity wayleave agreements haven't been sorted, despite being known about for months. I know of one tenant for this block who was expecting to move in during March, and am just waiting to hear whether he's had any update.
• I've also heard about at least one resident of F1 (Stanley Ave) who doesn't know why they can't move in to the houses that look like they've been finished for weeks!

How difficult would it be for these landlords to keep their tenants informed? If they wanted, I'd be more than happy to publish any info, but I've not been approached. Am I surprised, well no, not really - why would they want to draw attention to their problems...there's certainly no incentive for them, their tenants are dependent on them, not the other way around.

It's sad, it's disappointing, it's unprofessional - it's perhaps bordering on something even worse, but I'm afraid it's a reflection of the planning process and how it empowers the developers not the residents/tenants. Despite that it would be nice if companies would put their customers first, not their bottom line - only the most narrow minded don't realise the two are related!