DTLR performance unit head Anne Kirkham said this week that government regional offices feared 98 councils would be in difficulties because of weak business planning, few resources or insufficient option appraisals.
Affected councils will face quarterly monitoring on their action plans to overcome the problem, Kirkham told a Northern Consortium of Housing Authorities conference in Leeds.
She stressed the political importance of the decent homes target, saying the Treasury wanted evidence of progress “especially in the context of the comprehensive spending review” currently under way.
The target was originally set because the Treasury demanded proof of the outcomes of increased spending in recent years. Housing minister Lord Falconer’s first move on taking office was to ask for a progress report.
Kirkham is to meet Treasury officials in the next fortnight to argue that the programme is on course.
The deadline for cutting non-decent housing by one third by 2004 should be met, she added.
But she dampened any thoughts of more cash to help hit the target: “There are unlikely to be big increases. Lots of departments will be looking to protect their [existing] budgets.”
Updated guidance on the standard this week asked councils to consider whether the housing concerned had a long-term future before projecting investment to improve it.
Consultant Bob Towner, who is researching the issue for the Govern-ment Office for Yorkshire and the Humber, argued that the timescale was unreasonable.
“The figures we face are capricious and arbitrary, and not likely to be achieved,” he said.
Towner called on the government to release more right to buy and land sale receipts to speed improvements. But he warned: “Some stock reduction programmes need to be more radical and robust. The government could look again at helping with the costs.”
Source
Housing Today
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