A Lib Dem attempt to block massive investment in council-owned homes has failed.  Lib Dem councillors called a special meeting at public expense to try and overturn a vote by tenants in favour of a bid that could see over £200 million spent to upgrade some of the worst homes in the borough. 

During the summer, tenants across Lambeth took part in a ballot, voting in favour of Labour plans to improve homes and give local people a bigger say in housing management.  The money is earmarked to upgrade conditions for over 10,000 families whose homes suffer from damp, rotten windows and out-of-date kitchens and bathrooms. 

But Lib Dems, who were heavily defeated in council elections last year, called a special meeting in a bizarre attempt to stop the improvements going ahead.  They called on the Council to overturn the ballot result and turn down the chance for the biggest-ever investment in social housing.

Labour’s Kirsty McHugh held up a picture of the very large property where the Lib Dem housing spokesman lives.  She thundered: “This is a decent home.  This is the kind of home where the Lib Dems gather to plot how to stop improvements for those living in the worst conditions.” 

Labour’s Steve Reed attacked the Lib Dems for trying to stop changes that would benefit some of the poorest people in the Borough.  He said: “It’s galling to hear the Tories and their Lib Dem allies lecture us about how to spend Labour Government money.  It was their Tory government that left our estates and the people who live in them to rot in the first place.  The opposition are obsessed with process and spin.  Labour’s obsessed with improving people’s lives.”

Thanks to Labour’s majority on the Council, Lib Dem plans to block the investment were heavily defeated.

Estates like this one will benefit as Labour brings in new money to improve council-owned homes