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£5m lost in latest Labour Lambeth housing debacle
May 1, 2010 1:27 PM
Some £5m is being written off in the latest debacle to hit crisis-ridden Lambeth Living.
The housing management company set up by the council's Labour administration is unable to collect almost half long-standing major works bills due from leaseholders because of a shambles in home ownership services.
To pay for this, tenant rents have shot up, services have been cut and repairs frozen.
A report on the agenda at this month's Leaseholders Council said that "non-compliance with the section 20 consultation and notification requirements" mean the council is not able to enforce the debt. 500 major works projects are involved. Auditors tested 40 of the 500 schemes - documentation was available in only 8 instances to confirm compliance with the requirements.
The report was on the agenda for Housing Scrutiny a couple of weeks back but this appalling scandal was placed as the very last item on a long agenda and was talked out by Labour councillors, despite Lib Dem protests, so that if fell after the guillotine and went for nothing in what has amounted to a huge cover-up.
"! have been pressing for a good year now to have this matter scrutinised," commented Lib Dem housing spokesperson Cllr Jeremy Clyne, " so that the justification for the write off can be examined and all those responsible can be held to account. After the discussion was talked out at Scrutiny I requisitioned a special meeting but this was blocked by the Labour whip."
One of the questions is the process under which a decision was made to write the sums off, clearly such a huge decision should have been published and open, if necessary, to challenge. "I am trying to get answers on all these issues," added Cllr Clyne.
This £5m loss has been a huge hit on the council's Housing Revenue Account which this year has been in such a state that Lambeth Living has had to completely halt anything but emergency repairs.