One million pounds retained by Liverpool council after it sacked its housing repairs management firm should be ploughed back into the city鈥檚 social housing, the council鈥檚 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 拢1.8m in an out-of-court settlement after the company challenged the sacking as a breach of contract. Omniserve was originally awarded a 拢3m contract.

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

Under Anderson鈥檚 motion, the funds would be used to prevent 70 redundancies at the council鈥檚 current housing repairs manager, Liverpool Enterprise 鈥� a move that would cost the council 拢700,000.

鈥淭he 拢1m should be ringfenced 鈥� to keep the workforce on and bring the repairs service for this year and next back up to scratch,鈥� 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.鈥�

If they don鈥檛 put that money back, that鈥檚 a misuse because housing revenue money which comes from the council tax is supposed to go into that,鈥� 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.

鈥淲e wouldn鈥檛 be trying to reduce the value of our housing stock when we don鈥檛 agree with the ethics of a large-scale stock transfer,鈥� he said.

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

Source

Housing Today