Housing Minister John Healey MP has confirmed Lambeth will receive £230m to improve 10,000 sub-standard council homes.  The council needs the additional money on top of almost £2m a week already being spent to bring all council homes in the borough up to minimum standards.  The upgrades will include new windows, roofs, doors, central heating and modernised kitchens and bathrooms.

The money is only available to the council because residents voted to set up an ALMO – arms-length management organisation – to manage Lambeth’s council homes.  The ALMO, called Lambeth Living, is led by a board that includes elected tenant and leaseholder representatives making the service directly answerable to residents.  The Government only makes additional funding available to ALMOs, so in Southwark where the Lib Dems and Tories refused to give residents the option of setting one up there is now a staggering £750m funding shortfall that means thousands of residents will be left to live in sub-standard homes.  Lib Dems and Tories in Lambeth wanted to leave Lambeth’s tenants and leaseholders in the same situation as they opposed taking the action necessary to bring in the funding. 

John Healey’s letter this week is the final confirmation that the money will come through as soon as the ALMO reaches the two-star standard that shows they are ready to spend it properly.  Already thousands of council homes across Lambeth are being upgraded thanks to our Labour Council working hand in hand with the Government.  Now the only thing that could stop the quarter-billion pound cash injection coming through would be a Tory government – but the latest opinion polls show that threat is receding as the General Election looks increasingly wide open.

Labour has confirmed Lambeth will get £230m to upgrade poor quality council housing - but the Tories and Lib Dems would let homes get worse just like they have in Southwark