Letter of the week

At Bradford council, across-the-board cuts of 5% have been imposed – it’s totally unfair, regardless of the quality of the service supported housing providers have been forced to operate on significantly less money.

The system makes no provision for negotiation on contract price, no allowance for inflation and no allowance for cost of living increases on employees’ wages.

I don’t blame Bradford – the ODPM has slashed its budget 5.4%.

But taking money away from areas like Bradford to give it to authorities where historically little has been done to develop housing support services is crazy.

People with support needs who have migrated to where the services are – to authorities that recognise need and do something about it – are now being punished. Are they now supposed to redistribute themselves so that they match the ODPM’s idea of geographical equality, returning to areas that have little history of catering for their needs and now have extra cash and few services to spend it on?

Mark Best, Comment via Housing Today website

Well done to Mark Best who is the first Letter of the Week writer to win a copy of An Introduction to Social Housing, published by Elsevier.

For more information on Elsevier books, visit www.architecturalpress.com.