"One star housing verdict puts end to money for improvement", say Ealing Tories

 

They say:

Money to improve the homes of 14,600 Council tenants and 4,500 Council leaseholders is now unlikely to be made available following an Audit Commission report which says Ealing Council's Housing Department is not up to scratch.

 

Under the Arms Length Management Organisation (ALMO), Ealing Council should be eligible for tens of millions of pounds to bring up all homes to the Government's decent homes standard. But the money is only made available to Councils that are deemed competent enough to manage such major investment. A report released by the Audit Commission this week gives Ealing just one out of three stars for its Housing Department, short of the necessary two stars to make it eligible for the ALMO grant.

 

The Audit Commission reveals this week that notwithstanding some improvements, out of London's 33 boroughs only two Councils - Havering and Redbridge -provide a worse housing service than Ealing. The result is that Ealing tenants will have to wait even longer before we have a hope of providing homes to a basic standard.

 

Conservative Housing Spokesman, Cllr Ian Gibb said that once again it was amongst the most vulnerable in Ealing that would be paying for the Labour Council's incompetence. He said:

 

�We are so used to receiving reports from Government Inspectorates about this Council's incompetence that this one hardly comes as a surprise. But the tragedy with this report is that it really matters to thousands of people whose living conditions are dependent on the Council's rating. Without this money tenants will not get the security, environmental and renovation improvements that this Council has been promising.�

 

January 12, 2005