It looks like Basildon Conservative Councillor Steve Horgan is tearing his hair out over a change in government policy about improving council housing. And perhaps he has good cause? To quote his blog:
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Labour betrays Basildon’s Council tenantsSomething quite terrible has happened in Basildon. The Labour government has reneged on its promise to fund major improvements to our Council housing as part of the Decent Homes scheme.
Now, you have to either know a bit about housing finance or be a Council tenant to really understand just how awful this is, but I will try to explain. Basildon, like many local authorities, has problems in maintaining its Council housing to the standard that most ordinary people in a developed country would find acceptable. Years ago, Labour came up with ‘Decent Homes’, a scheme whereby if a local authority aligns itself to supposed best practice in housing management very considerable sums would be made available to bring up the standard of public housing.
In Basildon we have had to jump through bureaucratic hoops over a number of years and then set up what is called an Arms-Length Management Organisation, which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Council with a mission to deliver the housing service. This has all cost millions, but at the end of it we have a good ALMO, St. George’s Community Housing, and the promise of ?142 million from government if St. George’s achieves a good rating in an inspection that is currently in progress. I know that this sounds like a lot of money but what it translates into is decent kitchens, bathrooms, windows and other improvements that most people would consider normal for a house in Britain in the 21st century.
Then, on Friday, we got a letter saying that there won’t be any money until 2011 at the earliest and telling us that the government’s new idea is to build council houses instead. We were not the only ones. First, there is the betrayal of trust. We thought that we were in partnership with the government in order to deliver better houses, and better lives, to thousands of our people. Instead that has all been swept away. Years of work, millions spent and they just go and change their mind…..
In Rochford we have handled things differently, and passed our council housing stock (except for the Dutch Cottage!) onto a housing association. This was on the basis of strong advice from our council officers, votes of councillors, and a ballot of tenants.
Rochford Housing Association, through its ‘parent’ Sanctuary Housing, has secured significant funds to carry out its programme of improvements to the “Rochford Standard” (better than Decent Homes) as promised in the Offer document and the legally binding contracts.
That improvement programme is well under way and will continue for some years.