The Government has announced a significant increase in new house building recently, which will be funded by reductions in other programmes, one of these areas being the £112 million Decent Home programme for Sutton residents.
In particular, the intention is that any Arms Length Management Organisation (ALMO) yet to receive their two stars, following their Audit Commission inspection, is unlikely to be funded until 2011 /2012 onwards. In most cases there is unlikely to be funding available in 2009/2010 or 2010/2011 and in no cases can this be guaranteed.
The Decent Homes funding is critical to deliver improvements, such as replacement windows, kitchens and bathrooms. It will also pay for the replacement of out-dated box bathrooms on the St Helier estate, increased insulation and upgrading tower blocks such as Chaucer House.
Chief Executive of Sutton Housing Partnership, Andrew Taylor said, “It is difficult to be anything other than devastated by this announcement, especially given both the hard work and planning that residents and everyone at SHP has been involved in. It goes completely against commitments made generally and specifically to us, and we have already written back to the HCA (Homes and Communities Agency) and further representations will follow.
“The announcement is likely to have a damaging impact on relationships with our residents, many of them elderly and vulnerable, who will see this as a further sign of the total disregard for their poor living conditions.
“For our staff the announcement comes at a critical time, but we will not allow it to divert us from improving services for our residents and getting the two stars in our October inspection.
“Once we have further news from the Government on this decision, we will let all our residents know as quickly as possible and together we will overcome any difficulties that we have to face.”
Posted on Tuesday 21st July 2009