Lib Dems promise to reverse decent homes raid
Liberal Democrat policy is now to reverse the government’s decision to use decent homes money for new housing, after an emergency motion was carried at its conference.
The proposals put forward by Sutton, Camden and Streatham were discussed yesterday at the Liberal Democrat conference in Bournemouth.
This was after the submission was voted the favourite of four emergency motions to be discussed.
The government has shifted £150 million from its decent homes budget for 2010/11 to fund the building of new homes. The cash had been earmarked for arm’s-length management organisations, who could unlock it by achieving a two-star rating under the Audit Commission’s inspection criteria.
The motion called on the government to make a commitment that ALMOs who reach the Audit Commission’s two-star rating will get the funding they were promised.
It read: ‘Council tenants across the county are subsidising the Treasury to the tune of hundreds of millions of pounds every year without benefiting from much-needed investment in council home repairs and maintenance.’
It condemned ‘the government’s betrayal of council tenants who have already suffered decades of under-investment in housing by successive Conservative governments’.
It also demanded that changes to the housing revenue account allow tenants and local authorities more control over the reinvestment of local council rents.
‘The government’s ideological opposition to direct and accountable local authority management of council housing has led to tenants being deprived of any decent homes investment because they have not voted in support of an ALMO or stock transfer,’ it stated.
In response to the motion, housing minister John Healey said: ‘This government has made massive improvements to public housing and our commitment to ensure everyone is living in a decent home is as strong as ever.
‘By 2010 around 3.6 million homes will have had work carried out to them thanks to £40 billion worth of investment, and I am determined we will complete the job.
‘Earlier this year I gave councils the flexibility to keep the rents from any new build properties as well as any receipts from homes sold through the right to buy. I also set out proposals for councils to have even more freedom to manage their housing stock.’
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Readers' comments (1)
Mark | 24/09/2009 4:29 pm
Of course this matters nothing as the Libs will never be in a position to implement anything. The funniest thing I read recently was Nick Clegg claiming he had a realistic chance of being PM - not in this universe and/or your lifetime, Nick.
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