Concerns voiced as refurbishment policy ‘goes backwards’

Housing minister John Healey told the Communities and Local Government select committee on Monday he was worried that some councils were ‘going backwards’ on the home refurbishment policy.

Mr Healey also admitted that only 92 per cent of homes would reach the standard by next year, rather than the 95 per cent previously quoted.
He revealed that the level of non-decent homes had grown in 27 councils. Half the stock at 13 authorities was non-decent this year, while more than a third of homes at 10 authorities were non-decent.

Mr Healey said he was ‘particularly concerned’ about 14 councils where non-decent stock had increased in the past two years to 10 per cent or more of the homes they are responsible for.

He said: ‘I want to make sure they are not letting their tenants down and are getting the benefits of lessons learned in their area.’ The assessment is due to be completed by February.

Peter Marsh, chief executive of the Tenant Services Authority, told the committee that landlords would have to maintain their homes to the standard or above it, if that was a condition of funding they had received from the Homes and Communities Agency. He added that landlords would be expected to publicly state their definition of decency.

Mr Healey said £1.6 billion might be needed for arm’s-length management organisations to spend on decent homes in the next spending review period. He said: ‘We will fully fund and we will complete the decent homes programme beyond 2010.’

This week’s pre-Budget report says £33 billion has been invested as part of the decent homes programme so far.

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