Cuts to bite as Lambeth Housing crisis hits home

5.38.14pm BST (GMT +0100) Thu 23rd Oct 2008

Lambeth's Labour council are set to axe jobs and housing offices, while painting of council homes and even a scheme to help pensioners are to be cut as managers reveal details of their plan to cope with the meltdown in the finances of Labour-run Lambeth Housing.

Meanwhile managers are clearly expecting some of the council's tenant-managed estates to collapse as result of the crisis.

The council's housing management department is facing a massive deficit of at least £10 million this year. This week's board meeting of Lambeth Living, the new arm's length company running the borough's housing, will be recommended to accept a crushing package of cuts.

The measures are expected to save £2.5 million. And still yet to come is the double rent rise, of some 14 per cent, which will hit tenants next April.

Particularly embarrassing for the Labour administration which pledged to open more housing offices will be the further reduction to just three "counter service points", in Streatham, Brixton and Kennington Lane.

Apart from cuts in cyclical painting and the decorations scheme for the elderly, a £1.5m reduction in planned maintenance will include stopping the replacement of out of date gas fires, and halting improvement of communal boilers.

To help meet a £1m cut in the management fee from Lambeth council the ALMO plans to axe 12 of the 50 staff who work in leaseholder services and 12 staff who manage repairs and major works. Another 24 are expected to volunteer to leave.

But this is just the beginning of job cuts. "In time the whole of Lambeth Living should undergo such reviews," says its chief executive Pete Redman in his report to the Board.

"With this swingeing round of service cuts, tenants - even elderly vulnerable residents - are paying for Labour mismanagement of the Housing Service, and this is before the double rent rise hits them," commented Liberal Democrat housing spokesperson Jeremy Clyne. "We still want to know why a balanced budget turned within weeks to a shocking £10m shortfall with no clear explanation."

Mr Redman warns in the report of the impact on the tenant managed estates (TMOs) of the reduction in their allowances from the Council. "The level of cut in the allowances is likely to be very disruptive both to the services provided by these TMOs and the relationship with Lambeth Living."

"The council will bear the legal costs that are anticipated, and if any TMOs fold then any unpaid creditors may fall due by the council," says Mr Redman adding that there will be a need for specialist support to help the TMOs and to pick up any staff transfer costs "if any TMOs should fold"

The recommendation to stop the painting of Valley Road estate has infuriated Streatham Wells Liberal Democrat councillor Julian Heather: "I am extremely angry that Lambeth has once again dropped Valley Road Estate from the external decorations programme," he says. "This is the third year running that Valley Road Estate has been programmed for external painting and the third year running that the estate has been dropped from the programme. Parts of the estate have not been painted for 25 years, i.e. since the estate was first built. Windows are rotting because of failure to paint the exposed wood frames, while there are sections of external house walls that have big holes in the rendered surface making the estate look as if it has been in a war zone."