Labour Group accuses commission of meddling in politics and oversimplistic reasoning
Hull Council's Labour group has bitterly attacked the Audit Commission over its draft report into the running of the council.

Last month a draft governance report by the commission recommended a formal takeover of Hull's housing service. It said almost one in 10 of the council's 35,000 homes are standing empty.

The Labour group has replied by accusing the commission of meddling in politics and coming to the council with an agenda decided in advance. The group ran the council for about 30 years before being ousted in May.

Group leader Colin Inglis said a commission warning that the housing revenue account was heading for insolvency was based on simplistic reasoning.

"Sustaining low rents has been deliberate policy in a low-wage local economy and quite properly so," he said. He admitted the group was "playing a game of chicken" with the government on the issue.

"It is a game we have chosen to play and which we hope to win. We will not prejudice our chances for the short-term expedient of pleasing government inspectors, who are themselves pawns in that game."

He dismissed as "absurd" a Birmingham University report warning that 70% of council homes are suffering low demand. "We have not heard that Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge are about to march on the city, and in the absence of such a stimulus we cannot believe that over 26,000 council properties are in imminent danger of being abandoned," he said.

A demolition programme under way for 3500 homes could lead to a shortage of social housing, he warned.

But his accusation that housing inspectors speak as "technocrats not democrats" stung the commission into action. It stressed that among its team was Birmingham council deputy leader Andy Howell.

Inspection director Paul Kirby said: "Our inspectors are highly experienced and conscientious. They are not politically biased but concerned solely with ensuring local people get a decent service from their council. Clearly that is not the case at Hull.

"It is disappointing that some members of the council are viewing the report in a combative way instead of seeing this as an opportunity to learn from the mistakes of the past."

A formal decision on whether the government should intervene in Hull's housing service is expected in July or August.