GOVERNANCE

LG Ltd is a company but, because every household is a shareholder/member of the company, in practice it is an association of neighbours. It is very important that our actions and decisions are driven by residents’ opinions. There are a number of measures that we take to ensure this.

The main control that members have is that they elect the Board at the AGM. If the Board does things that members don’t like they can throw them out and elect a new Board.

But that’s a bit of a blunt instrument and would only be used in extremis. More normally the Board has a duty to try to act in accordance with residents’ opinion (and if not they will be thrown out!). So we consult with and inform residents as best we can.

The trouble with consultation and communication is that no matter how much you do it’s never enough – but this is what we do:-

• All the directors are themselves residents and we seek to maintain a balanced and representative approach, consulting with neighbours and taking note of both majority and minority opinions to achieve the widest consensus possible
• We issue periodical newsletters to all residents with news and information.
• Occasionally we send round circulars with reply slips to check consensus on a particular issue.
• We conduct electronic straw polls by testing issues on those residents who have given us an e-mail address.
• Very occasionally (only once in living memory!) we call a general meeting to decide a particular issue.
• And we of course hold an Annual General Meeting which decides on the election of Board members and anything else that is currently to be decided.

But what do we mean by “residents’ opinion”? In principle it means a majority in a vote but most issues are decided without benefit of a vote – that’s what residents elect the Board to do. We have to be careful that we are not simply taking the opinion of a vocal minority; we mustn’t take decisions that are supported by only a slim majority.

We do try to ensure that what we do is supported by a substantial majority of residents. We can’t please everybody all the time but we can aim to please most people nearly all the time. And if we fail you can chuck us out!