THE BOSS of the UK’s largest housing association has received a £50,000 bonus despite some tenants living in poor housing conditions. 

According to a report by Inside Housing, Clarion housing CEO, Claire Miller, has received a £51,000 bonus for 2021.

The squalid conditions in some properties owned by housing association Clarion, where first uncovered and highlighted by ITV News in June. 

Many of the black tenants featured in the investigation said they felt their race was the reason their complaints were not taken seriously.

The news of a hefty bonus has upset some housing campaigners and tenants. 

Kwajo Tweneboa, 23, is a full time business studies student and a social housing activist.

He is a Clarion resident and lives on the Eastfields Estate in Mitcham, south London, which was featured in the TV news investigation. 

Speaking to The Voice, he said: “I’m feeling physically sick that a CEO that manages an organisation that’s repeatedly been exposed for putting tenants lives at risk by forcing them to live in inhumane conditions on Eastfields and nationally has been awarded a £51,000 bonus.”

The poor conditions highlighted in the ITV News footage, showed some Clarion residents living in properties covered in mold, experiencing leaks, collapsed ceilings and rodent and cockroach infestations. 

Mr Twenenboa worked closely with ITN’s housing team to expose the conditions on the estate in June this year. 

He said: “Tonight there will be residents going to bed with faeces running down their walls, broken ceilings, electrical leaks, mice, rats and cockroach infestations, whilst the CEO goes to sleep with an extra £51,000 bonus.” 

The student told The Voice that 1,700 people have now signed a petition calling for Ms Miller to resign. 

He said her acceptance of the bonus “embodies the issue of classism and is completely unethical.”

Mr Twenenboa said: “These organisations have no moral compass what so ever.”

“They are destroying lives,” he added. 

According to Inside Housing, in the year 2019/2020, Ms Miller earned a staggering £343,375. 

During the same year, she also received an annual bonus of £38,964 and had a £10,000 car allowance. 

Clarion Housing is the UK’s largest housing association, owning and managing 125,000 homes. 

According to their website, they have 350,000 people living in their properties.  

In 2016/17, there were 318,150 new social housing lettings where the ethnicity of the main tenant was known (95% of the total). 

During the same period, Black households made up 7.1% of new social housing lettings, and 3.4% of the overall population of England.

According to government statistics, Black households were over-represented in new social housing lettings; Black African households accounted for 3.8% of new social housing lettings and 1.7% of the general population, and Black Caribbean households accounted for 2.4% of new social housing lettings and 1.2% of the general population. 

The Voice has contacted Clarion Housing for comment.