Lambeth Housing: What is Labour going to do?

Labour made five key promises to tenants and leaseholders during the election campaign. Here’s our commitments for better homes and safer communities:
1. Repairs done on time and to the quality you expect
2. Crackdown on crime with anti-social neighbours, drug dealers and squatters evicted fast
3. Estates kept bright and clean with better lighting, improved rubbish collection and more recycling
4. Bring empty homes back into use and stop the Lib Dem housing sell-off
5. Every home safe, warm and dry with rents kept down as low as possible.

HOUSING

The biggest challenge ahead is to bring every council home up to a decent standard by 2010. That means making every flat or home secure, weather-proof, free from damp or rot, and with a good standard bathroom and kitchen. At the moment, over a third of Lambeth’s council homes fail to meet this standard.

Unfortunately, because the Lib Dems and Tories mismanaged Housing so badly the Council is now nearly £200 million short of the money it needs to get this work done. Luckily, the Labour Government is offering a way forward. They’ve offered to give the money to Lambeth, but because Lambeth Housing is in such a mess they don’t want to give the money to them in case it all goes missing. Instead, they’ve asked Lambeth to do one of three things to make sure the money’s well looked after:
1. Transfer Lambeth’s housing stock to a non-profit-making housing association that has a good track record of running a housing service.
2. Borrow the money through the Government under a scheme called PFI (private finance initiative) that involves a private-sector partner.
3. Keep council homes in council ownership but set up a independent organisation (called an ALMO) to manage them that includes tenants on its board.

Labour thinks option 3 is the best choice for Lambeth. An ALMO (or Arms-Length Management Organisation) means that tenants and leaseholders needn’t worry their homes are being privatised because they’re still owned by the Council. It gives residents more say in how their homes are managed because their representatives will help run the new organisation. And it means Lambeth can safely ask for the extra £200 million without the worry that Lambeth Housing will lose it just like they lost £3 million in fraud last year. Best of all, it’s the fastest and safest way of ensuring that the work can go ahead to bring ALL our council homes up to a decent standard.

But we will only go ahead with this option if tenants and leaseholders tell us that’s what they want after an extensive consultation. If residents tell us they prefer one of the other options we would go with that instead. But we think most tenants and leaseholders agree we can’t just do nothing and leave so many council homes run-down and shabby. Lambeth’s tenants and leaseholders deserve better.

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