By Neil Merrick
10 December 2009
Efforts to improve the quality of social housing by the end of next year are being thwarted by councils failing to refurbish their homes fast enough, housing minister John Healey claimed this week.
Announcing a full-scale assessment of the decent homes programme on December 8, Healey said ‘poor performing’ councils appeared to be going backwards, with 27 reporting an increase in below-standard homes in the past year.
He also admitted that 8% of social housing would still fail the standard in December 2010 – the target date. This compares with the 5% predicted by ministers three years ago.
‘Some of the poorest performing local authorities are going backwards,’ said Healey. ‘I want to make sure they are not letting tenants down.’
In 13 local authorities, the majority of their properties are below the decent homes standard, according to the Department for Communities and Local Government. In a further ten councils, one-third of stock fails the standard.
Four councils with arm’s-length management organisations are taking the DCLG to a judicial review over its decision to hold back £150m for decent homes work until after 2010/11.
Gwyneth Taylor, policy director at the National Federation of Almos, said its members would feel aggrieved at being labelled ‘poor-performing’ by the government. ‘We need the ability to tackle the backlog [of non-decent homes] and a stable funding regime to keep on top of it,’ she said.
Healey said more than £33bn had been spent by councils and housing associations since 2001.
10 December 2009
Efforts to improve the quality of social housing by the end of next year are being thwarted by councils failing to refurbish their homes fast enough, housing minister John Healey claimed this week.
Announcing a full-scale assessment of the decent homes programme on December 8, Healey said ‘poor performing’ councils appeared to be going backwards, with 27 reporting an increase in below-standard homes in the past year.
He also admitted that 8% of social housing would still fail the standard in December 2010 – the target date. This compares with the 5% predicted by ministers three years ago.
‘Some of the poorest performing local authorities are going backwards,’ said Healey. ‘I want to make sure they are not letting tenants down.’
In 13 local authorities, the majority of their properties are below the decent homes standard, according to the Department for Communities and Local Government. In a further ten councils, one-third of stock fails the standard.
Four councils with arm’s-length management organisations are taking the DCLG to a judicial review over its decision to hold back £150m for decent homes work until after 2010/11.
Gwyneth Taylor, policy director at the National Federation of Almos, said its members would feel aggrieved at being labelled ‘poor-performing’ by the government. ‘We need the ability to tackle the backlog [of non-decent homes] and a stable funding regime to keep on top of it,’ she said.
Healey said more than £33bn had been spent by councils and housing associations since 2001.
