HCA shelves task force

The move follows an application for a judicial review by four of the 11 round six ALMOs against the deferral of their decent homes funding until 2011/12. As a result, the HCA said it was postponing meetings with all ALMOs in the London decent homes task force.

The task force was originally set up to help the six London ALMOs awaiting funding achieve their two-star rating from the Audit Commission.

Only half the councils with ALMOs in the task force are involved in the legal action. The remaining three - Lewisham, Tower Hamlets and Lambeth - are also affected by the postponements.

David Lunts, London Regional Director at the HCA said: ‘As three local authorities on the task force are involved in the Judicial Review, the decision was taken to suspend the task force meetings until the legal challenge on the deferral of decent homes funding has been resolved.

‘We are continuing to meet with the task force boroughs and ALMOs that are not involved in the Judicial Review so they are in no way disadvantaged by this decision.’

Gwyneth Taylor, policy director at the National Federation of ALMOs, said: ‘The HCA has merely said that it is going to talk to the individual ALMOs, but we don’t know whether they are actually going to provide the same support as the task force.

Ms Taylor added that the task force, which first met in September, has so far only examined the impact of the deferral, rather than providing any support on achieving two stars.

A spokesperson for Lewisham Council said it joined the task force as the best way to secure funding within the available time frame. ‘Although the task force meetings have now been cancelled we are continuing to have bi-lateral discussions with the HCA and working closely with the ALMO.’

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