More funding needed to complete Decent Homes
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The government risks undermining the achievements of the Decent Homes programme if it fails to address a second backlog of repairs, the National Audit Office has warned.
In a report to Parliament, the government’s financial watchdog says the programme is widely a success, bringing benefits to communities. However it warns there will still be more work to do beyond the programme’s original 2010 completion date, and there is uncertainty over the total cost of the scheme.
The government initial target was to ensure all social sector homes met the Decent Homes standard by 2010, but in November last year it estimated only 92 per cent of homes would meet the goal, leaving 305,000 homes below standard. It suggested the programme would not be complete until 2018/19.
Amyas Morse, head of the National Audit Office, said: ‘There are risks to both the programme’s completion and what has been achieved so far if a reliable funding mechanism is not put in place to deliver the remainder of the programme and to maintain homes to a decent standard.’
A Communities and Local Government department spokesperson said housing minister John Healey remains ‘totally committed’ to completing the programme.
‘The NAO report recognises that we have promoted good value for money and exercised effective control when releasing funds, and many homes were improved without money from the government,’ the spokesperson said.
‘It also recognises that the department’s initial estimate of £19 billion was only to improve the backlog of local authority housing stock, and the department always understood this would never be the cost of the entire project.’
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Readers' comments (3)
Tom | 21/01/2010 11:06 am
''a reliable funding mechanism''
Does this mean that we tenants can now expect above inflation rents hikes up until 2018 now?.
I am reminded of a dog chasing it's tail,where the tail is the target rent.
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B.S. Townroe | 21/01/2010 12:18 pm
Para. 3.15: "Allowing local authorities and tenants the final say in the delivery route for authority owned stock, whilst meeting the Department’s wider policy objectives, led to issues for the Department’s management of its three yearly budgets, and for delivery at a local level".
Yeah, why bother to 'allow' tenants or the owners of the properties to have a say? This kind of thinking comes from the same mindset that thinks the NHS would so much better if only it didn't have to deal with sick people.
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Peter | 21/01/2010 5:16 pm
The problem with finance is; it is a like statistics. The people who control the purse strings can manipulate it any way they see fit and then call it, efficiency savings, cost effectiveness, etc., etc., etc., They are no longer interested in what anything actually costs or the long term benefit in proper investments!
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