Lib Dem motion condemns decent homes cut
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The Liberal Democrat party conference is to debate a motion today calling for the government to reverse its decision to use decent homes money to pay for new housing.
An emergency motion put forward by the London boroughs of Sutton, Camden and Streatham calls on the government to make a firm commitment that arm’s-length management organisations who reach the Audit Commission’s two-star rating will get the funding they were promised.
In July it emerged that £150 million of the £1.5 billion announced by the prime minister under the Building Britain’s Future initiative would come from the 2010/11 decent homes budget for councils with ALMOs.
The money was from a pot that had been set aside, because ALMOs can unlock decent homes cash when they reach the two-star standard required by the Audit Commission. At the time housing minister John Healey said the government was committed to the decent homes programme, and the money would be available in 2011/12 instead.
But the motion being debated by the Liberal Democrats accuses the government of abandoning ‘the 5 per cent of the population whose housing is not up to the decent homes standard’.
It also calls for the wider reform of the housing revenue account subsidy system to ensure that tenants and local authorities have more control over the reinvestment of rents.
It states: ‘Conference condemns the government’s betrayal of council tenants who have already suffered decades of underinvestment in housing by successive Conservative governments.’
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