Haringey residents lose out again on Housing improvement fund

11.51.49am UTC (GMT +0000) Fri 21st Dec 2007

Residents in Haringey face yet more delays in urgently needed funding to bring its housing up to basic standards. Last week it was announced that Homes for Haringey, the Council's Arms Length Management Organisation (ALMO), would not receive a confirmed place on the Decent Homes programme. As a result tenants will now miss out on £230 million of funding intended to increase to standard of housing.

The news comes after Homes for Haringey received the required two-star rating in a recent inspection. Lib Dems have written to the Chief Executive of Homes for Haringey and Haringey Council to express their concern at the continued delay and to seek immediate reassurances that the ALMO is doing everything to ensure that residents in Haringey will receive the funding.

The 'Decent Homes by 2010 Programme' was a key election pledge in Haringey Labour's 2006 manifesto.

Cllr Carolyn Baker, Lib Dem Housing Spokesperson, comments:

"The ALMO seem to have taken a back seat in their approach to acquiring decent homes money. The result is that residents of Haringey who have been living in substandard accommodation for years are going to have to continue as they are for the foreseeable future.

"As Decent Homes investment includes installation of central heating, it is certain that older people and children in Council accommodation in Haringey are going to have to pass a number more winters without proper heating that they shouldn't have needed to. This is particularly shocking when you consider that in many parts of London Decent Homes work has now been completed."

Lynne Featherstone, who has tabled a parliamentary question demanding a timetable for the delivery of Decent Homes money, adds:

"This money is not about penthouse upgrades, but the very basic housing standard that every family in the borough has been promised and deserves. Every moment of delay is another moment where thousands of people locally are sentenced to another night of substandard accommodation."

Notes:

In March 2007 a letter received from the Chief Executive of Homes for Haringey showed that the Decent Homes work would be delayed until at least 2012/13 from the original completion date of 2010.

Homes for Haringey was awarded a two-star rating by the Audit Commission on 23rd August 2007.

Statement by Yvette Copper on 12th December 2007 http://www.communities.gov.uk/statements/housing/socialaffordablehousing

Parliamentary Question tabled by Lynne Featherstone MP:

When will Haringey Council and its Arms Length Management Organisation, Homes for Haringey, be receiving its full funding under the Decent Homes Programme for improvement to its housing stock and will the minister make a statement on the causes for the delay?