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Labour Decent Homes Con Finally Exposed
March 2, 2010 4:43 PM
Labour politicians have now been fatally exposed over false promises made to thousands of tenants across the borough that they could deliver substantial improvements to the crumbling public housing stock including new kitchens and bathrooms for everyone.
Labour's leaders boasted that they could grab loads of Government money (a reputed £233m) simply by setting-up a privatised housing management company (ALMO) later called Lambeth Living. Labour then poured huge resources, including diverting officers away from other important tasks, to convince, coerce and cajole residents into voting yes in a bid to cynically rid them of the housing problem.
The plan was to bring Lambeth council-owned properties up to the Labour Government's so called Decent Homes Standard by 2010. That standard by the way decreed that all social housing must be secure, weatherproof and warm. But almost as soon as they began the goalposts were moved forward two years to 2012.
Ever since the controversial ALMO was set-up, Lambeth Living has been sinking into a mire of debt and chaos, has been forced to shed countless frontline staff, close area offices, cut back on services, halt all but emergency repairs, and send tenant's rents and charges rocketing in a desperate bid to remain solvent.
In recent weeks and months we have also heard about consultants raking-in fat fees, the Council and Lambeth Living being at loggerheads, the Council Leader, Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member all piling-in, seemingly just to rearrange the deckchairs on the fast sinking ship, and even a soon-to-be redundant local Labour MP being recast as a figurehead for this doomed vessel.
Now a shock report to Lambeth's Housing Scrutiny Committee finally confirms what Liberal Democrats have been saying for some time. Not only will tenants not see the promised improvements before or soon after the next election, they will now not see them until after the election after that.
The report says, " The delays (in getting the Government money) mean the prospect of ensuring all the tenanted stock reaches Decent Homes Standard by 2014 is no longer reliable as Lambeth is not in a position to access any alternative funding of this magnitude."
In other words Labour's slick door-to-door ALMO sales force sold the tenants a pup.
In a cruel double-whammy the same report also disclosed that the proportion of Lambeth homes not satisfying the decent homes standard has increased under Labour and is expected to rise from 30% to 40% by 2013/2014.
Liberal Democrat Housing spokesperson, Cllr Jeremy Clyne, commented " Labour has consistently denied this crisis entirely of their own making and dismissed our legitimate concerns as just scare-mongering politics. Labour has twisted and turned at every point, denied, rubbished and kept secret any information that did not fit in to their rosy scenario. Now they have been exposed to the full glare of the scrutiny spotlight and they have nowhere to hide. Everyone can now see who was telling the truth and who lied.
Cllr Clyne added, " The people I feel most sorry for are the Council tenants who were hoodwinked by Labour and their disastrous ALMO. The whole project has been a tragic and hugely expensive mistake and if Labour had only spent the money on repairing homes instead of repairing political careers and bolstering consultant's bulging wallets tenants would feel a lot better off than they do now.
Cllr Clyne said, " Make no mistake, Labour may feel that they've simply kicked a thorny problem into the long grass but the people who are now having to wait nearly a decade for a promised decent home will soon have the chance to cut Labour down to size."
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