ODPM will tell the 12 fourth-round councils how much cash they'll have in September
The 12 councils chosen for round four of the £2bn arm's-length management programme will have to wait until September to learn how much they have been allocated – four months after the list was finalised.

The delay means the councils – who have collectively asked for £1.8bn until 2010 – will have to postpone any plans to ballot tenants or improve stock.

Slough,which bid for £45m for its 7500 homes, is one of the councils affected. Nigel Bailey, Slough's ALMO project manager, said: "It puts back the programme. We have to wait that much longer to take something to tenants.

"We'll have to look again at when we do our ballot. We had hoped to do it in June or July but it will have to be put back until the autumn.

"It's not the end of the world, but tenants are disappointed. We just want to get on and deliver the improvements."

Neil McDonald, director of housing at the ODPM, attributed the delay to having to wait for July's comprehensive spending review. "We are tied up by the review – we can't give them money we haven't got," he said.

"The plan is to give the round-four ALMOs funding for two years covering 2005/6 and 2006/7. However, we are likely not to get this decided until September. "What I can say to reassure those in round four is that they are at least able to tell tenants they have a place on the programme and that funding is on its way."

Gwyneth Taylor, policy officer at the National Federation of ALMOs, said: "The ODPM cocked up its timetable for the round-four ALMOs and has admitted as much. Hopefully, it won't make this mistake again.

"The round-four councils could have had longer to submit their bids – say, March rather than December last year. This would have got round the issue of the projects losing momentum over the summer because the period between bid submission and funding announcements would have been shorter."

The 12 councils that have successfully bid for funding are Bassetlaw, Ealing, Eastbourne, Hammersmith & Fulham, Newark & Sherwood, Nottingham, Rotherham, Sandwell, Slough, Wolverhampton, Brent (partial ALMO) and Sheffield (also partial).

The ODPM has asked Bury and Manchester to refine their bids.

Source

Housing Today