HRA campaigners urge government to write off debt

At a meeting on Friday, the authorities said it was ‘unfair and unsustainable’ to redistribute housing revenue account debt across all the councils that own housing, including those that are currently debt-free.

The government is proposing to reallocate £18 billion of housing debt to local authorities as part of moves to allow councils to keep the money they generate through their housing stock.

The meeting was organised by the Campaign for Fair and Local Housing Finance, and held in Waverley.

Waverley Borough Council chief executive and campaign co-ordinator Mary Orton said: ‘Housing finance reform is long overdue, but if it is to work properly to give local authorities the freedom to invest in local housing then ministers need to think again on debt transfer. That is the view of most of the councils that met in Waverley and most of the councils elsewhere too.

‘We will now be working with other local authorities and representative groups to lobby for changes to what has been proposed, and finally to provide a genuinely fair and local system of housing finance that benefits tenants, councils and local communities alike.’

The other councils at the meeting were Babergh, Cambridge, Cannock Chase, Charnwood, Crawley, Dacorum Borough, Dartford, East Riding of Yorkshire, Fareham, Gravesham, Harlow, Lewes, Camden, Hammersmith and Fulham, Manchester, Medway, New Forest, Portsmouth, Kingston Council, Southampton, Winchester, Woking, Wokingham and Wycombe.

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