Local government leaders attended an event in Westminster on Tuesday (Sept3) where the council’s jointly publish a new report ‘Securing the Future of Council Housing’.
Cllr Claire Holland, the leader of Lambeth Council, said: “Social housing is in incredibly short supply in Lambeth meaning thousands of homeless households in our borough are having to be housed in lower quality, nightly temporary accommodation.
“The national funding system means we have insufficient funds to maintain our estates to the high standards our residents deserve.
“We are determined to build new social housing, maintain our housing stock to a decent standard and provide good quality accommodation for homeless households. But after more than a decade of poor public policy, under-funding and government disinterest we need to see real change to achieve this.”
Lambeth, which is one of the countries biggest social housing landlords, has 25,000 social housing properties and 4,600 homeless households in temporary accommodation.
Over the last 14 years in Lambeth alone Government cuts and unfunded policies have taken £500million out of the ‘Housing Revenue Account’ budget which is used to maintain the borough’s council homes.
Further, the scale of the housing challenge, especially providing temporary accommodation is having a big impact, drawing money needed for other services and putting Lambeth, and other councils around the country, into deep debt.
The report launch follows Lambeth Council signing up to the five solutions alongside 20 of the country’s biggest social landlords in July.
They make up a plan for a ‘decade of renewal’, with local authorities and central government working together to housing revenue back on stable foundations, bring all homes up to modern and green standards, and deliver the next generation of council homes.
To read more about them visit lovelambeth.gov.uk.
Since then more than 80 other councils have joined the coalition backing the new approach. The new more detailed report, with contributions from housing policy experts, sets out a full roadmap to renew our country’s council housing over the next decade and critical policy changes for the realisation of the new government’s social housing ambitions.
