Lambeth Housing: What the Lib Dems and Tories did

In May 2002 a Liberal Democrat and Conservative co-allition was elected to run Lambeth Council. During the next four years they managed to seriously damage numerous services, but none more so than Lambeth’s Housing Department. The man the Lib Dems put in charge of housing was a man called Keith Fitchett. Owning his own villa in the south of France, Councillor Fitchett was not exactly conscientious in fulfilling his responsibilities as Cabinet Member for Lambeth Housing. Indeed, the first thing Cllr Fitchett did after getting his new job was to change council policy so that private developers could bid for council owned properties which were being auctioned off. Funnily enough, he then turned up at the next auction and bid for one of the houses he was flogging off himself!

If this was an inauspicious start, it didn’t get any better for Lambeth’s tenants and leaseholders who were relying on Fitchett to run the Housing department efficiently and competently. The Lib Dems came up with a project called “reframing” which was supposed to save Lambeth Council money, whilst closing a number of local housing offices. As a result, reporting of repairs and complaints was funnelled through a new call centre. The problem with reframing was that it didn’t do any of the things it was supposed to. Repairs times slowed down, tenants became alienated from their Housing Department and none of millions of pounds worth of savings materialised.

This picture of financial incompetence was confirmed in 2005 when a massive £3 million fraud was revealed in the Housing Department. Fitchett and his Lib Dem colleagues had let the department drift into financial chaos. This allowed a convicted fraudster to gain employment in housing, write £3 million worth of cheques to a fake company and then disappear with the money. The £3 million that was lost was supposed to pay for new heating systems for tenants. When independent auditors investigated the department following the fraud they described it as being in “chaos”.

From 2002 to 2006, the Lib Dems and Tories also failed to get in investment so that Lambeth Council homes could reach the “Decent Homes” target set by the Government. This target states that every council home in Lambeth should be safe, warm, dry and with adequate facilities by 2010. During their time in power the Lib Dems and Tories did nothing to bring in money and as a result there is now a £220 million investment gap to be filled if Lambeth is to provide decent homes for its tenants.

In May 2006, the people of Lambeth kicked the Lib Dems and Tories out of office and elected Labour to run Lambeth. When Labour took over they found that the housing department’s finances were in a total shambles, with a projected in-year overspend of over £10 million. To put in context just how serious this is, it is illegal for the council to overspend on it’s housing budget. Labour quickly took action to sort this mess out, whilst still delivering on manifesto pledges. Please see below for what further action Labour will be taking.

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