Planned refurbishment spend of £105m was based on outdated information, they claim
Coucillors in Stockport are calling for a new audit of the borough's housing needs after tenants voted against stock transfer.

Council tenants narrowly rejected plans to allow newly created registered social landlord Stockport Homes to take on 12,900 homes in a ballot last month (HT 21 March, page 8).

But as the Liberal Democrat-run council tries to find a way forward, some members are questioning the estimates of how much needs to be spent on the homes to bring them up to a decent standard.

Stockport Homes planned to spend £105m on refurbishment, basing its figures on an independent 1999 survey that assessed 1% of the authority's homes.

Tom McGee, a councillor whose Labour group opposed the transfer, said: "A lot has changed since then. We've had demolitions on two estates, and in the region of 2000 right-to-buy sales.

"We need to know more accurately what we've got to do; only then can we look at how we deliver that. The starting point, though, has to be the government looking at changing the rules that bar councils from investing in housing stock."

Council leader Mark Hunter said: "Hundreds of tenants were visited by housing staff during the past couple of months to make sure they had all the information they needed about transfer and, at the same time, a stock survey was carried out. We've got all the information we need – what we don't have is resources to put right the problems that exist. We'll be looking at all the available options"

Opposition councillors are also questioning the amount the council says it spent on the transfer consultation process, backed by Andrew Bennett, one of Stockport's MPs and chair of the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister housing and planning select committee.

Labour councillors dispute the official figure of £720,000, claiming the consultation cost double that. They have written to the council's finance director asking for a breakdown of the cost after a meeting with the chief executive failed to satisfy them.

Hunter said: "I'm sure they would have liked a lot more money to have been wasted but the fact is it has not. I'm happy that the money was spent properly and wisely."

Source

Housing Today