05 August 2005
Two-thirds of local authorities have had their plans to meet the decent homes target approved by ministers – but almost 10% missed this week's cut-off date for submitting firm proposals.
Although most of the 17 councils that failed to send stock option appraisals to the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister before July 31 should do so soon, one – Camden – has admitted that it has no idea how it will achieve the decent homes standard by 2010.
The ODPM was expecting option appraisals from 196 councils that have not already set up arm's-length management organisations or transferred all their stock to a registered social landlord. A total of 138 have been signed off, while 41 that met the July 31 deadline have still to receive final approval.
The 17 councils that have yet to send in appraisals include Reading, Stroud, the Isles of Scilly, East Devon and the London boroughs of Camden and Southwark.
The others have not been identified but do not include Birmingham which, having had its stock transfer plans thwarted by tenants, is undergoing an assessment of its strategy by regional government officials.
Camden confirmed that it does not expect to take up any of the three main options on offer: stock transfer, an Almo or the Private Finance Initiative.
'Camden does not have an option or combination of options to achieve decent homes,' said a council spokesman.
Sarah Webb, director of policy at the Chartered Institute of Housing, said the overall picture was more or less as expected, but some authorities did not have viable options.
'We have not solved that problem,' she added. 'There is still an impasse.'
Sixty-three of the 138 councils whose option appraisals have been approved plan to retain all their homes, while 23 wish to manage them through an Almo.
Forty-six are opting for a stock transfer, while others are going for a mixture of solutions.
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