Originally posted @ 9:15 am, Wed 9th Sep 2009
Good news to see 29 local authorities getting Government support to build council houses today. Disappointing to find that South Derbyshire was not among them.
There are around 2,000 people on South Derbyshire's waiting list. There is a real need. But the Tory leadership on South Derbyshire District Council did not see fit to explore the potential of this new opportunity. Councils elsewhere, including administrations of all political colours, have. And nearly all who applied won a scheme.
There's a particular need for council housing to support local people in rural villages. Councils like North Kestevan have responded to this need and won support for 17 houses in 5 different villages. No such hope for families in South Derbyshire villages.
Because in South Derbyshire, the ideologues have taken over.
Instead of exploring building houses at a good time to borrow, South Derbyshire Tories want to get rid of council houses at a bad time to sell (although they did not mention their plans in their election manifesto upon which they were elected).
£50,000 has been spent on a consultation to sell off council housing when the tenants are overwhelmingly against the proposal, Tenants we've talked with on the doorstep and on the phone have overwhelmingly said they want to stay with the council.
But outdated ideology has taken over. The kind of ideology that the Mirror exposed on Monday, when senior HQ Tories are minuted as planning to scrap all long-term rental tenancies.
South Derbyshire Tories should now -
- explore the potential for council housing in the next wave of the Government scheme;
- say that they will never try to sell off council housing against the wishes of tenants;
- affirm support for long-term rental tenancies.
Background Notes
The Government announcement.
As part of Budget 2009, the Government announced £100 million would be available to local authorities to support them deliver new affordable housing; a figure increased almost four fold as part the Government’s £1.5 billion Housing Pledge in June.
Local authorities were invited to consider this chance to build council homes again and 51 local authorities in England submitted bids for financial support. Today, the go ahead was announced for 47 councils with 205 schemes to build over 2,000 new council homes for nearly 10,000 people.
The Government are, in this first round, supporting 29 schemes in the East Midlands.
South Derbyshire tenants want to stay with the council.
Tenants of South Derbyshire District Council are overwhelmingly against their homes being sold to a housing association.
The Labour Party has spoken to many tenants this year. The responses showed that over 8 out of 10 want to stay with the council.
The Conservative Party have wrongly said that the council tenants had to be asked now if they want their homes to be transferred from the council – there is no statutory requirement on local authorities to review the housing stock for transfer on a regular basis.
The Conservative Party have wrongly said that the contribution to national government for the original construction of the properties was a Labour scheme – the Conservatives started the scheme twenty years ago. And Labour has now announced plans to change it.
Now that the Conservative Party have said they may not go ahead with a sale if the current review changes existing arrangements, tenants and the public generally will wonder why £50,000 has been spent on such an exercise now, rather than wait for the outcome of the current review. That £50,000 has been wasted.
The housing currently cannot be sold with the support of tenants. Might South Derbyshire Tories be planning on the basis that national Tories will remove such a protection?
South Derbyshire Tories are ignoring tenants’ opinions, wasting money and lacking ambition for people in need.
Mirror article, published 7th September, 2009
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2009/09/07/tories-plotting-huge-rent-rises-115875-21653786/
"Housing benefit facing axe as Tories plot
Comments