ODPM dismisses select committee’s demands on decent homes …

In a 23-page response to the committee’s report on 15 July, the government claimed it was on track to meet the 2010 decent homes target, which covers factors like insulation and kitchens.

The ODPM also reiterated that councils will not be given a “fourth way” to draw down extra funding to meet the target beyond transfer, the private finance initiative or arm’s-length management.

The select committee published its report in May, questioning the government’s ability to bring all social housing up to the standard.

It pointed to rising costs and the fact that 164 councils have yet to choose an option for their stock.

But housing minister Keith Hill said: “We’re not saying it isn’t going to be tough, but we’re on target and we’re hoping to step up the turnaround of homes.”

Hill also denied that councils such as Birmingham and Camden, which appear to have exhausted the options available, would scupper the decent homes plan.

He said of Birmingham: “A lot of good work has been started and I think it’s doing the right thing, considering picking and mixing [partial transfers and partial ALMOs]. But it needs to complete its options appraisal by next year.”

The ODPM estimates that the number of non-decent homes remaining will decline more steeply after 2006 (see “The road to the deadline”, below).

The committee had asked the ODPM to reconsider its “dogmatic pursuit” of the separation of strategy and management.

But the government insisted its three preferred options were “flexible enough” adding that the only scenario in which it would be suitable for stock to remain with a council was where extra public spending was not needed.

In this case, tenants could choose for their homes to remain in direct council control, it said.

Responding to the committee’s suggestion that the policy “unfairly steers” tenants towards transfer because funding for ALMOs is finite, the government said that transfer had access to private as well as public funds, while ALMOs are public expenditure.