04 May 2007
The only local authority not to have its decent homes plans approved by the government has presented new proposals to tenants.
Four years after tenants in Camden rejected an arm's-length management organisation, the London council has drawn up new plans to upgrade more than half of its 24,000 homes.
Camden was told by the Department for Communities and Local Government that it must submit a draft stock options appraisal by the end of May and a final appraisal in December. Council leaders are due to meet housing minister Yvette Cooper on May 16.
Most councils had their option appraisals signed off nearly two years ago. By failing to gain support for the Almo in 2003, Camden lost the opportunity of £283m. The latest proposals, revealed to tenants and leaseholders on May 1, show how it could erase a £242m shortfall by selling off empty homes and focusing on essential work such as heating and rewiring.
Alan Walters, chair of Defend Council Housing, said the authority was reviving a strategy that had been rejected following the Almo ballot in 2003 and accused it of going back on a pledge to press for the 'fourth option'. 'It is dressing it up as a way of meeting the decent homes target but it's also an asset-stripping exercise,' he said.
Chris Naylor, Camden's executive member for housing, said years of lobbying ministers had not yielded a single penny. 'We're not prepared to sit back and wait while our homes deteriorate further, with many already living in damp and overcrowded conditions.'
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