LGA ditches debt demand

Ruth Lucas, policy consultant at the LGA, announced the shift at a Housing Quality Network conference this week.

Ms Lucas said the LGA’s original stance had been for all debt to be written down but because of the ‘current fiscal position’ the LGA had changed its opinion.

But she insisted: ‘There should be no more debt redistributed than is currently in the system and the repairs backlog should be dealt with separately.’

The LGA supported the idea of grants to deal with the repairs backlog, she stated.

She also urged officers and councillors to give the government’s proposals for self-financing of council housing serious consideration when they came out in the hope of reaching a consensus on a deal.

At the same conference, Peter Ruback, deputy director at the Communities and Local Government department responsible for the financial reforms, said that the consultation on the terms of the deal could turn out to be longer than the six to eight-week window councils had expected.

He said: ‘It might be longer than that, but it might start to interfere with the local authority purdah period. We are not certain yet.’

Councils had been concerned that it could be difficult to sell such a complex settlement to members, many of whom are not housing specialists, in a six to eight-week period.

Ms Lucas said the LGA would be providing training and support for councils to help them work out the impact of the government’s offer.

Mr Ruback said that councils would not be under pressure to pay back the redistributed HRA debt quickly.

He said: ‘I am not saying the policy would demand maximum repayment trying to get to zero as fast as possible.’

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