Labour move goalposts for council house repair promise

10.12.31am UTC (GMT +0000) Fri 9th Jun 2006

Sheffields tenants will be angered by broken promise

Sheffield's tenant have been hit with a bombshell today with the news that Government and local Council have broken a manifesto promise and moved the deadline for repairing their homes.

In a move that is likely to anger many Sheffield tenants, the Government has stated that they will drop their manifesto commitment to have all council homes brought up to a decent standard by 2010. Liberal Democrats are now pressing the Labour Council to outline how the move will affect Sheffield's tenants.

The move comes just one month after the local elections in Sheffield in which the Labour Party promoted their 2010 Decent Homes promise.

Labour's 2005 manifesto said: "By 2010 we will ensure that all social tenants benefit from a decent, warm home with modern facilities". Last night the local Government minister Ruth Kelly conceded that, by 2010, "most" but not all tenants would have a decent home.

The minister also outlined that some councils would be given more financial freedom to help them repair homes. She also suggested the government was no longer concerned about who owned or managed social housing. Liberal Democrats have cautiously welcomed this separate announcement as it could open the door for the 'fourth option', i.e. keeping council homes under ownership of the council.

Councillor Bob McCann, Liberal Democrat Shadow Cabinet member for Safer Neighbourhoods, said: -

"Many tenants who were expecting their home to be refurbished under the decent homes programme in Sheffield will be angered by this move. They had been promised that work would be done by 2010, but it now appears Labour are moving the goalposts"

"The councils labour town hall bosses need to outline just exactly what this means for Sheffield's tenants now that their own Government has dropped this bombshell. We also need to explore 'the fourth option' of keeping council homes within ownership of the council now that it appears to be back on the table"