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Camden News - by RICHARD OSLEY
Published: 25 September 2008

Nod to Camden: Caroline Flint

Minister promises talks on repairs and decent homes

Labour delegates ‘let government off hook’ on housing, claim

LABOUR delegates from the Holborn and St Pancras branch have been accused of limping out of a showdown with the government over funding for housing repairs at the party’s annual conference.
Instead, they defiantly insisted that rather than square up to housing minister Caroline Flint across the conference floor, they had gone one step better and secured a series of concessions in deals cooked up behind the scenes at the Manchester get-together.
They were last night (Wednesday) confidently predicting that Ms Flint would see through promises to meet the Camden contingent in the next few weeks and that she would investigate the Liberal Democrat and Conservative coalition’s policy of selling homes to raise funds.
Controversially, delegates agreed on Tuesday to support housing policy recommendations which failed to include the promise of direct investment in Camden’s faulty council homes and have been seen as “watered-down promises” by some tenants.
The sudden support was believed by sceptics to have been arranged by the party’s top brass to avoid a potentially embarrassing revolt in a flagship policy area.
Alan Walter, a tenants’ campaigner from Kentish Town who is also one of the chief organisers of Defend Council Housing, a group backed by scores of MPs, said: “The Camden delegates let the government off the hook. I would like to have seen them put more pressure on ministers over investment.
“We had warm words last year, and some more this year but it’s time to see the colour of the government’s money.”
The government has refused to hand over the cash ever since tenants voted against hiving off control of homes to independent companies four years ago.
A huge backlog of repairs remains.
In the meantime, the coalition-run Town Hall has effectively given up hope on direct investment and has already begun selling street properties to pay for the refurbishment elsewhere.
Sarah Hayward, from the Holborn and St Pancras branch, said delegates had not made up their minds before conference how they would vote but had “tested the water” and believed they would not win a vote for stiffer demands on investment.
She told conference her branch had “reservations” but would back it anyway, adding: “Rest assured we will continue to push for the same level playing field extended to the refurbishment of existing stocks.”
The latest to and fro at conference means Camden is isolated as a special case at a time when a national campaign for direct funding had hoped to make gains.
Ministers are instead more likely to agree to estates being demolished and rebuilt as private flats as long as the new buildings include the same number of council flats.
Labour councillor Theo Blackwell said: “It is time to look at the reality of the situation. Camden cannot be at the epicentre of a national campaign.
“The delegates have to get a deal that is right for Camden – that is the first priority. There is likely to be an internal study of what is going on in Camden so that we can come up with an alternative.”
Ms Flint gave a nod to Camden’s case by specifically mentioning the borough in her speech to conference hall in Manchester on Tuesday morning.
She said: “There is far more that unites us than that divides us, that’s why I want to work with Labour MPs and councillors in Camden to achieve what we all want: decent homes. Housing policy is too important to be determined by a one-off showdown at party conference.”

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