Stricken three-star council pushes government for special treatment after ALMO failure
The government has refused to sanction a fourth way for councils to meet the decent homes standard despite pressure in the wake of Camden's failed arm's-length management ballot.

The council, rated three-stars by the Audit Commission, lost the vote dramatically last Friday.

Under government rules, it has no other way to raise the £283m it needs to bring its 33,000 homes up to the decency standard by 2010 as it already uses the private finance initiative on as much stock as it can and is unlikely to attempt a second vote on stock transfer.

However, the ODPM has confirmed that those options are to remain the only ones available.

An ODPM spokeswoman said: "Camden needs to look at its options again, go back to its tenants and talk to the ODPM."

Housing minister Keith Hill held crisis talks with Camden's director of housing, Neil Litherland, and leader, Dame Jane Roberts, on Tuesday afternoon in an attempt to thrash out a solution.

Roberts wants the government to use the £283m earmarked for the ALMO to service a Public Works Board loan, in effect, giving the money direct to the council.

Camden requested this two years ago and was refused.

Litherland said: "We tried to make constructive suggestions about the way forward. We just want to find a way of getting the investment that's needed."

Litherland has ruled out repackaging the ALMO and putting it to another vote, or splitting the borough into several areas, each with their own option, as Birmingham has done following its tenants' rejection of transfer.

Litherland and Roberts will meet with ministers again in the next couple of weeks, and have been promised that civil servants will work on Camden's case as a matter of urgency.

The ODPM refused to comment on the meeting's outcome, but Hill is understood to be determined that the current investment policy remains intact, and that whatever happens to Camden, it remains an exception.

On 9 January Camden's tenants rejected the ALMO by 77% on a turnout of 30%. The failed bid cost half a million pounds.

This was despite the council's victory the day before in a High Court judicial review brought by anti-ALMO campaigners over alleged bias in ALMO publicity.

A spokesman for anti-ALMO pressure group Defend Council Housing said the nationwide campaign against ALMOs would be stepped up after the victory.

Councils planning fourth-round ALMO bids said the Camden result would not affect them.

The experts’ view

Camden will have to go back to the tenants on an area-by-area basis
Gordon Perry, chair, National Federation of ALMOs The government should think again about its policy
Professor Duncan MacLennan, Glasgow University I don’t think the government has got any choice but to stick to its guns
John Perry, former head of policy, Chartered Institute of Housing

Source

Housing Today