Who are the PEP? February 5, 2010

Attempting to research the organisation (the initials stand for Priority Estate Projects Ltd) has been like swimming through treacle. Their own website is almost completely unhelpful, containing much meaningless jargon but no “hard data” whatsoever about either the company or its senior employees.

The quest for information on these people is further complicated by the fact that the two employees assigned to the Bolton job are called John Edwards (one of the five most common names among people of English/Welsh ancestry) and Robert Webb (a Google search produces umpteen results but most of them relate to the comedian and “Peep Show” star of the same name).

The organisation, which refers to itself as “non-profit”, came to prominence in the Thatcher years when academics at the London School of Economics came up with a series of ideas to “improve” inner London estates such as the notorious Broadwater Farm. Rioting in this large and completely neglected estate (it didn’t even have a bus service until 2006) had led to the murder of the policeman Keith Blakelock.

PEP was established to implement the LSE professors’ ideas and recruited most of its employees from a background in municipal housing department or housing association management. During the remaining years of the Conservative government, under Thatcher and then John Major, it took part in “regeneration” schemes in 20 London housing estates.

For those who are too young to remember it personally, the Thatcher government (and the woman herself) were psychopathically opposed to public ownership of almost anything beyond the army and the police force. The gas, electricity, water, coalmining, telephone, train, and bus industries, previously owned by the nation as a whole, were sold off to private investors in quick succession.

Despite her personal antipathy to public ownership, Thatcher was a political realist (until her fatal mistake with the Poll Tax) and knew that she could never get away with the wholesale “privatisation” of even more fundamental assets such as low-cost housing and the health service. In light of this she decided to achieve her goals more gradually, by stealth.

In the housing sector she came up with a vote-winning proposition by giving council tenants the “Right to Buy” their properties at a heavily discounted price. The predictable result of this (the British have always had an eye for a bargain) was a vast reduction in the number of publicly owned flats and houses.

Being given the “Right to Buy” was, in itself, by no means a bad thing, but the flip-side of the Thatcher coin was a virtual prohibition on the building of new council properties to replace those being sold off to their sitting tenants. At a time of great economic hardship (caused by Thatcher’s frankly barmy political beliefs) the amount of low-cost housing available plummeted.

The number of professional public housing managers also nose-dived, but for these newly unemployed middle-class folk the “Iron Lady” had a bone ready to be thrown. They could become independent “consultants” available for hire to local councils, to advise on the intricacies of the “Right to Buy” scheme and other doctrinaire government initiatives.

As private-sector contractors they were forced to follow the government’s line to find enough work to pay their own bills. Any kind of dedication to the higher ideals they might previously have held went out of the window as a result. This was the dog-eat-dog environment which gave birth to PEP and dozens of similar organisations.

When John Major was ejected from power in 1997 and “New Labour” elected by a landslide, many of us (especially those on benefits or lower incomes) rejoiced. It seemed as if the nightmare was finally over. Sadly, it soon became clear (or should that be “absolutely clear”?) that Tony Blair and the rest of the Peter Mandelson crowd were as dedicated to “privatisation” and “consultants” as the most rabid of Thatcherites.

PEP were delighted to discover that the new government were actually Conservatives in Labour clothing, and the organisation soon enjoyed the political patronage of Deputy Prime Minister John “Two Jags” Prescott. Prescott liked to portray himself as a working-class hero. His hypocrisy was (and still is) boundless, and the attack on publicly-owned housing continued.

Council estates the length and breadth of the country, desperate for an influx of real money for real regeneration discovered that none was available. There was, however, plenty of money for “consultants” such as PEP to swarm across the land spreading their airy-fairy ideas like a plague of locusts. There was no money to build new council houses but shed-loads for loyal free-lancers in brand-new cars.

Returning to PEP’s claim that it is a “non-profit” organisation, this is clearly a matter of opinion. The group might well have no shareholders collecting dividends, but as it grows its longest serving employees get richer by default as they gain responsibility for more staff and experience a commensurate rise in their own salaries.

One can hardly blame their front-line employees such as Edwards and Webb. Elbowed out of the public housing sector by dwindling budgets they must have found PEP to be an attractive alternative employer. Once in receipt of their relatively generous “consultants” salaries their natural tendency was to preserve their newfound affluence by becoming enthusiastic about government policy. They became like crack-whores with an expensive habit. Morals were no longer on the agenda.

So, PEP can be described as “independent” only by those who remain blind to one basic truth. Their jobs depend upon slavishly following “New Labour” dogma, regardless of the interests of impoverished council tenants. They do what they have to do to survive and dress it up as “the way forward” to salvage their own ill-deserved self-respect.

According to Bolton Council (and we know that they never lie!), PEP were selected to advise on the Housing Transfer project by a “panel of tenants”. Did you get to vote for the residents who sat on this “panel”? Do you know who they are? Of course not. It’s more of the usual “smoke and mirrors” and this “panel” has as much democratic credibility as one of “New Labour’s” famous Focus Groups which unerringly rubber-stamp existing policies.

Stage One in the fight-back against this ridiculous proposal (or “opportunity” as Councillor Cliff Morris impartially puts it in the “newsletter”) is to make life as difficult as possible for the metaphorical crack-whores from PEP. Whilst unnecessary rudeness and unpleasantness should be avoided they must be given the message that we do not require their grubby services. Bolton says No.

The Council invite us to ring PEP on a toll-free number especially established for the Bolton job, 0800 328 0845. If you have to pay for your calls, by all means use this number to express your discontent. On the other hand, those with free call packages may prefer to jam the switchboard at the company’s real telephone number, 01782 790900.

If you call this latter number, don’t waste your time on underlings. Ask to speak to Nick Wigg (PEP’s Managing Director) and if you’re lucky enough to be put through tell him that we don’t want his tawdry little company’s advice. We already know how we’re going to vote.

Alternatively, if the switchboard refuses to connect you, then keep ringing them back with the same polite request until they do. There is nothing illegal in this, whatever they might try to tell you. He really needs to speak to you. Thousands of you!