Auditor to expose £12.5m homes repairs 'waste'

The council is to be accused of squandering the cash after failing to bill thousands of householders for repairs to the council homes they had bought - many of which were under the controversial "designated sales" policy.

Campaigners are hoping the claims will dent Porter's attempts to urge the Audit Commission to drop the £27m surcharge against her, following her surprise victory at the Court of Appeal two weeks ago (Housing Today, issue 132).

A confidential draft report by district auditor David Chilcott, seen by Housing Today, says that in order to boost the designated sales policy the council agreed to try and soften the impact of repair bills on lessees incurred during a massive borough-wide refurbishment programme.

Officers were told in 1988 to "develop cost mitigation schemes aimed at reducing the burden of major works bills on both current and potential lessees" after councillors decided "the costs of major works could be a deterrent to home ownership".

Chilcott discovered that up to £12.5m of the repairs expenditure has been lost either because of long delays in sending out the bills or because they were never sent.

However, he stops short of finding anyone at Westminster guilty of wilful misconduct, instead putting the crisis down to officers and members failing to understand new laws, poor communications between departments and a failure to monitor the situation.

The report concludes: "I have found no evidence of any individual or group of individuals setting out to delay or prevent the billing of amounts due from lessees by improper means."

Westminster council said it would not comment on Chilcott's report until it is officially published.

The Audit Commission also refused to comment, claiming it would be "unfair" on the officers and councillors involved. Meanwhile, commission controller Andrew Foster is still deciding whether to drop the case against Porter, which is already thought to have cost the taxpayer around £7m.