‘Let us borrow cash for homes’

Plea in fresh attempt to ease repairs crisis

THE Town Hall is hoping to solve Camden’s council housing repairs crisis by joining a new government scheme which will allow it to borrow hundreds of millions of pounds.

But the plans have come under fire from Labour and housing activists after the Lib Dems admitted they do not yet know how much they need to borrow or how it will be repaid.

Campaigners have pressed for cash without strings to carry out much-needed repairs to Camden’s 30,000 council homes, after plans to transfer them to an Arms’ Length Management Organisation (Almo) were thrown out. The tenants’ No vote resulted in £283 million allocated for repairs in Camden being withheld by the government.

Now local government minister Ruth Kelly has announced the government’s Decent Homes target, which pledged to improve council housing throughout the country by 2010, is to be scrapped. Instead, some high-performing councils may be able to borrow cash for repairs.

Council leader Lib Dem councillor Keith Moffitt and deputy leader Tory councillor Andrew Marshall put in an early bid last week to be included in the borrowing pilot scheme.

They want to discuss with the minister the possibility of borrowing  cash by taking Camden out of the housing subsidy system and how to give residents a greater say in repairing their homes and estates.

 They also want to have talks with her on working with voluntary and independent housing developers so brownfield sites can be used for  housing.

Housing chief Lib Dem councillor Chris Naylor told a meeting of Kentish Town District Management Committee last week he did not “hold out much hope” of Camden being included in the pilot scheme.

He said yesterday (Wednesday): “We think Camden has a strong case but we’re aware only three non-Almo local authorities will be chosen from the whole country.”

When asked how much money the Town Hall hoped to borrow, Cllr Naylor said: “There’s a housing stock survey going on now and that will give us an up-to-date figure. It could be several hundred million to complete the works we need. But ideally we’d like the government to give us the money rather than us borrow it.”

Labour group leader Councillor Anna Stewart has accused the Town Hall’s ruling coalition of failing to do its homework. She said: “One would hope if you’re writing to a minister you’d have your plans worked up but it does seem they are rather thin on detail.

“We want to lever more money into our homes but we don’t want the administration to make far-reaching changes behind tenants’ backs.”