The borough, which has been a Conservative stronghold for 25 years, needs £30m to meet the 2010 target. But Martin Johnson, cabinet member for housing, said the council's enthusiastic adoption of the right-to-buy policy, which allows council tenants to buy their homes at a substantial discount, meant it did not need to transfer stock or create an arm's-length management organisation to raise funds.
It has sold 22,000 of its homes since 1981, leaving it with 18,439 homes under council control.
The sales have raised £550m. The council has spent £200m on its stock in the past 10 years. Last year, it spent £29m on stock.
Johnson said: "The best organisation in Wandsworth to look after social housing tenants is by far and away the council. There is no demand among tenants to hand over to any other organisation."
The situation will have implications for other councils, such as Hammersmith & Fulham, where tenants are happy with council control but have been forced to consider transfer or ALMOs because of a lack of funds. A spokesman for Wandsworth council said: "Other boroughs haven't been so enthusiastic in right to buy or so diligent in investing the proceeds."
Wandsworth claims it has pushed harder to sell council homes than other councils, in particular by allowing non-council tenants to apply for the right to buy. It has sold 59% of its homes through right to buy, compared with a national average of 30%.
Johnson said Wandsworth's position proved that the right to buy, a flagship policy for previous Tory national governments, worked: "You're just able to use the money you gain in other areas," he said.
However Jon Rolfe, councillor at Camden and a member of the Labour Housing Group's national executive, said: "If you look at the last year, Wandsworth only invested a third of its available receipts in refurbishing council housing – just £2.4m went towards social housing.
"It could have sold less than half as many homes and still made the same investment."
Source
Housing Today
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