A vote for change... or more of the same? Tory opens the door to new council homes sell-offs
Published: 15 April 2010
by RICHARD OSLEY
THE man who will decide the future of Britain’s social housing stock if the Conservatives win the General Election has left the door open for the Town Hall to go on selling off council homes.
Grant Shapps, shadow housing minister, pledged to hand more power to local authorities and tenants’ groups, but warned there would be no blank cheque for council properties amid tough economic times ahead.
Camden, starved of direct investment in its estates due to an ongoing row with the Labour government, would be taken “off the Whitehall blacklist” under the Tories, Mr Shapps promised, during a visit to the Chalcot estate in Belsize Park on Thursday.
But in comments which elections rivals have latched on as evidence that more – not fewer – council homes will be sold under a Tory regime, Mr Shapps said: “To put it into English: you’ve got some housing stock that is worth some money, you have about 23,000 homes in the stock. Anyone who is financially orientated will be able to tell you that there are ways of using that. We shouldn’t have the view that it’s all locked down.”
Local Conservatives interpreted the comments as meaning that a Cameron premiership would allow local authorities to borrow money against the housing stock for the first time. But Labour, which has put the issue at the forefront of its council election manifesto, warned that Mr Shapps was positioning himself for the prospect of more sell-offs.
His intervention coincided with Labour Housing Minister John Healey sending another letter to the Liberal Democrat and Conservative coalition at the Town Hall, urging it to freeze sales and pledging fresh investment on the other side of the election.
“I consider the council should not embark on sales of existing stock until they have reassessed their options in light of a new deal,” said Mr Healey. The timing of his letter, unsurprisingly, has been dismissed as a cynical political grenade by those in charge of the council.
Mr Shapps visited Burnham tenants hall to meet tenants, but also to boost Conservative candidate Chris Philp’s challenge to unseat Labour MP Glenda Jackson in Hampstead and Kilburn.
Two other front-line Tories have visited the constituency in the past seven days, Justine Greening and Philip Hammond, a certain sign that Conservative central office senses it can win here for the first time since 1987 and will keep the local campaign appropriately resourced. Other familiar faces are expected in the coming weeks
It was Mr Shapps who provoked the biggest debate, however. Conservatives – and Lib Dems – say they have had to sell council homes to raise enough money to pay for refurbishing estates. Labour candidates insist there are other ways to pay for the work and that selling homes when thousands are in need of a council flat should not even be considered, casting it as the ultimate sin in housing management.
Mr Shapps said: “There are lies being told about our commitment to housing but the fact is we built more council homes year by year under Margaret Thatcher’s government than any of the Labour governments that followed.”
The choice of Chalcot for his visit was deliberate. The estate – the blocks running up Adelaide Road – has been refurbished under Labour rule, but only using a Private Finance Initiative which was delayed and ran overbudget. The Belsize ward is a crucial battleground between Tories and Lib Dems in council elections, also to be held on May 6.
Mr Shapps said tenants in Camden had been “held to ransom for many years”, losing out on Decent Homes funding offered elsewhere because they voted against Labour’s plans to hive off control of estates to private companies and housing associations. He said nobody would be bullied by the Tories, adding: “We will find the solution that works best in individual areas. Our entire plans are about localism, so we want tenants to be in the driving seat.”
Mr Philp added: “What we will do is make sure we get the best value for the homes we do release.”
Ed Fordham, Mr Philp’s Liberal Democrat opponent, said: “It’s about government fulfilling its moral and housing responsibilities to fund council and social housing. The problem was started by the Tories and we appear to have confirmation that they can’t be trusted to deliver now.
“Selling a few homes to refurbish the many was a short-term solution to sort out the fact that the Labour government had withheld the money tenants and Camden needed. It must not become a fixed national policy.”
Holborn and St Pancras Labour MP Frank Dobson said he took the council sell-offs “personally” as he had played a role in buying up stock when he was a councillor.
He added: “What tenants don’t want above everything is to see council properties become empty only for them to be sold off rather than going to people on the waiting list.”