Now Labour's Shock £6 Million Housing Loss

4.09.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Tue 15th Jul 2008

Labour politicians are reeling after a whopping £6 million of local taxpayer's money went adrift in one of the biggest scandals to hit Lambeth's beleaguered Housing Department and which has been reported in the respected journal Inside Housing.

Not content with pushing ahead with the unpopular ALMO, or closing down area housing offices, or declining services and huge backlogs of repairs, Labour's Calamitous Cabinet has just delivered an enormous £6.4 Million deficit in the Housing Temporary Accommodation Budget.

This gigantic and shocking overspend was caused by Labour paying out to private landlords for temporary accommodation that was never used. This catastrophic Labour blunder comes at a time when the Government is reining-in on the grant given to Councils. This huge sum of money is now lost to the Council for ever.

It is not clear whether this is the final sum that has gone missing, or whether there are any aspects of fraud in addition to incompetence. Labour's Finance Chief Jim Dickson has launched an investigation and said that heads should roll. We wonder how comfortably his own head sits on his shoulders right now?

"Certainly there is some explaining to be done as to why this colossal overspend took a full year to be discovered," said Lib Dem Councillor Brian Palmer. "It doesn't sound like Labour has its eye on the ball, does it? And currently they are resisting all Lib Dem calls for a scrutiny meeting before October. So much for open Government!

"One thing is clear. Housing under Labour has turned into an unmitigated disaster zone.

"For the abandoned and disillusioned residents on Lambeth's neglected and crumbling estates and street properties it must seem like something worse," added Cllr Palmer.

"What on earth can Labour do next to pile on the misery?"