Decent homes – why are Lewisham Labour so frightened of a debate?

The decent homes programme is a government scheme aimed at bringing social housing (council and housing association properties) up to a pretty minimal standard by the year 2010. Most councils have just got on and done this.  There’s government money available to do it, and there are several ways to achieve it – by transferring stock to a housing association (like at Leybridge Court), by a PFI (like in Brockley) or via what’s called an ‘Arms Length Management Organisation’ or ALMO.

Lewisham have gone for all three approaches – with different solutions in different areas.  I’ve been supportive of the Leybridge Court transfer, so I don’t at all come at this from a ‘let’s oppose everything the Council does’ angle.

However, the ALMO route has been fraught with difficulty.  The Council were late setting up Lewisham Homes, and it had an appalling start with a dreadful Audit Commission report on the set-up it inherited from the Council (something the Cabinet Member responsible has told me she’ll never forgive me for demanding a copy of!).  The Government won’t give Lewisham a penny for decent homes until they’re confident the organisation is in a fit state to spend it, and they define that standard as a ’2 star’ award from the Audit Commission.

So far, that critical inspection has been delayed and delayed again, and far from all homes meeting the standard (as the Mayor promised tenants back in 2006), seven out of ten Lewisham Homes won’t meet the standard by 2010.  In fact, the number of non-decent council homes has increased since 2006 as kitchens and bathrooms have become life-expired.

The latest piece of bad news comes from Government.  Having got sick of waiting for Lewisham to get their act together, the Government has decided to spend the money allocated for our decent homes on something else.  So there’s now no money in the kitty to deliver decent homes, even if Lewisham did pull a rabbit out of the hat and get two stars.   The housing minister has said that money might be found in the next round of government spending – due in 2011 – but as we all know, there’ll be a general election by then, and he’s not in a position to promise that.

The Lib Dem group are really worried by this state of affairs, particularly as the Council has been very slow off the mark in waking up to this and doing something about it.  Their initial reaction was to deny there was a problem and say the money had been ‘delayed’ by six months.  Other Councils affected have launched a judicial  review, but Lewisham’s chosen not to take part in that.  So we tabled a motion for the last council  meeting on 24th September - noting our concerns and asking the Chair of Council to write to the Minister concerned, and for the Mayor to apologise to tenants through Lewisham Homes’ ‘Home’ magazine for their tenants.

Now, Council meetings in Lewisham begin at 7.30pm and end at 10pm, unless Council decides to continue.  As you can see from the agenda, the motion was the last item on the agenda of the September meeting.   So, when 10pm came round, we asked for the Council meeting to be extended so we could ensure we covered all the business.  Predictably, Labour councillors voted against, rather than have the motion discussed (I should add that they filibustered throughout the meeting to ensure that time ran out – one councillor listing the platforms at London Bridge station ‘Platform 1, platform 2, etc…)

So, we ensured our motion was the first one to be debated at last night’s council meeting.  What could go wrong?  Well, the Chair of the Labour Group decided to ask for the order of business to be changed, so that once again, our motion was last.  As a couple of opposition councillors weren’t present, the Labour group got their way, and the motion was once again relegated to the end of the agenda, and once again, they voted to close the meeting at 10pm.  That’s democracy, Lewisham Council style.

This is a really important issue that affects thousands of tenants across the borough. It needs to be discussed by their representatives, and not ignored because it’s politcally embarassing for the ruling clique.  Fortunately, there are now enough opposition councillors that we can call an emergency council meeting – so that’s exactly what we’ve done.

Why are Lewisham Labour so afraid of a debate?  I think their record on housing speaks for itself.