Housing - ALMO or ALAMO?

12.37.09pm GMT Tue 30th Jan 2007

Lib Dem Councillors want tenants to have a vote on the ALMO

Labour has angered tenant groups and residents with its scheme to impose a borough-wide ALMO, or arms length management organisation, to maintain and repair Council housing.

What's more, many Labour voters feel betrayed that the ALMO wasn't even mentioned in Labour's manifesto or campaign literature. Labour has since claimed that this was a recent decision but Lambeth Lib Dems have uncovered briefings among Labour councillors that show that they always intended to hive off this key housing responsibility to the private sector.

Labour says it needs to impose this draconian one-size-fits-all privatisation scheme to meet the Government's Decent Homes target by 2010 and to bridge a £230 million funding gap. They claim Government money is there for the taking.

In fact Labour has grossly over-inflated this figure needed to meet the Decent Homes Target, they've admitted that even with an ALMO it will be 2013/2014 at the earliest before they''ll reach the target and, of course, the money is a loan and not a gift.

Labour has also been remarkably high-handed about giving tenants a vote on whether they even want an ALMO - Labour Leader Steve Reed arrogantly says that only a so-called 'test of opinion' is required, which could be nothing more than an opinion poll among a few residents.

And £38,000-a-year Cabinet Member for Housing Cllr John Kazantzis even went so far as to say that tenants would not be capable of understanding a ballot. What a cheek!

Before any ballot or decision has even been made Labour plan to spend £300, 000 on PR consultants to persuade 30,000 tenants and leaseholders from Norwood to Waterloo that having this undemocratic private company in charge of their homes is a better option than the Council.

Lambeth Lib Dems say a one-size-fits-all policy is bad. If individual estates want to go down that road, that's fine. But consent is key and a ballot essential.

Lib Dems were already investing record sums on estate improvements after years of Labour neglect. The Audit Commission's Inspectors said, " There is a clear track record of improvement from the (Lib Dems') Housing Reframing Project."

Labour promised at last year's election to open more area housing offices yet in office they have cut a swathe through them leaving tenants high and dry and spending millions on redundancy payments instead of repairs. Labour claimed Lambeth had the highest housing costs in London but we are only just above the London average.

Lib Dem Housing spokesperson, Cllr Jeremy Clyne, says " Labour is wasting millions on an ALMO bid that they might not even win. What then? All the progress and hard work of the Lib Dems in creating a more efficient housing service enabling more money to be spent on repairs and maintenance will be lost on a hopeless and expensive Labour gamble."

Cllr Clyne added: " This undemocratic folly will be Labour's ALAMO."

Related Link:

Sign our petition for a ballot on Labour's ALMO plans.