24 February 2006
Claims that the government could be about to perform a U-turn and allow councils to invest directly in run-down homes have been dismissed by housing minister Yvette Cooper.
She denied that a working group set up by Labour's national policy forum will pave the way for a 'fourth option' for councils that fail to meet the decent homes target through other means.
Cooper told the BBC's Politics Show on February 19 that it was not feasible to provide councils with the same level of funding as that raised privately by housing associations.
'We're already putting a lot of public funding into improving council homes but it would be wrong to destabilise the public finances by trying to put those extra billions in as well,' she said.
PFfeb2006
