The office of the deputy prime minister has moved to downplay a prediction by Lord Rooker last week that 150,000 council homes will fail the decent homes target
The department said the housing minister鈥檚 estimate, made in front of the affordable homes select committee, was drawn from housing investment programme returns last year 鈥� before final guidance was issued.

Lord Rooker said the 150,000 represented 10% of the homes below the standard today. That means the total is 1.5 million homes 鈥� more than half of councils鈥� stock.

The ODPM could not say how many of these will be dealt with through transfer or demolition.

Consultant Bob Towner researched baseline figures for the Government Office of Yorkshire and the Humber. He said: 鈥淭he definitive guidance substantially changed the standard, so I wonder if the figure is evidence-based.鈥�

Source

Housing Today