One million pounds retained by Liverpool council after it sacked its housing repairs management firm should be ploughed back into the city’s social housing, the council’s opposition leader has urged

Omniserve (then known as Service Group International) was sacked by the council in 2002, but last month the local authority paid it £1.8m in an out-of-court settlement after the company challenged the sacking as a breach of contract. Omniserve was originally awarded a £3m contract.

At a council meeting on Wednesday, Labour leader Joe Anderson put forward a motion calling for the remaining £1.2m to be ploughed into the housing revenue account.

Under Anderson’s motion, the funds would be used to prevent 70 redundancies at the council’s current housing repairs manager, Liverpool Enterprise – a move that would cost the council £700,000.

“The £1m should be ringfenced … to keep the workforce on and bring the repairs service for this year and next back up to scratch,” he said.

Anderson said if his motion failed, he would report the Liberal Democrat-run council to the district auditor. He accused the council of running down its stock deliberately to ensure a future stock transfer vote would be skewed to bringing homes under private control.“

If they don’t put that money back, that’s a misuse because housing revenue money which comes from the council tax is supposed to go into that,” he said.

A council spokesman rejected claims that Liverpool was trying to run down housing stock to influence a vote on stock transfer, claiming that it was opting to form a mutual co-operative with tenants.

“We wouldn’t be trying to reduce the value of our housing stock when we don’t agree with the ethics of a large-scale stock transfer,” he said.

The spokesman refused to comment on whether the £1.2m would be spent on housing.

Source

Housing Today