Council tenants turn to charities for carpets, town hall meeting told

Charities are footing the bill for carpets and flooring in council homes as people with nothing are housed in “empty shells”.

The joint Labour opposition leader Carmen Appich raised the issue as Brighton and Hove City Council’s Policy and Resources Committee discussed the housing budget for the coming financial year.

At Hove Town Hall yesterday (Thursday 10 February) Councillor Appich said that people were provided with a home and expected to “get on with it” when often they had nothing.

She said: “Can we please make sure that properties are let in a liveable state. That doesn’t cost much.

“These people come to charities where I sit on the board and they bid for £500 for carpet. I’d much rather give them the £500 to buy a bit of furniture and a cooker so they can settle in and start living a life.”

Conservative leader Steve Bell said that he was concerned to hear that the council was letting homes without flooring.

The council’s executive director for housing, neighbourhoods and communities Rachel Sharpe said: “We are reviewing our letting standards and will look particularly at the issue of floor covering. It is something that is being raised with us.”

Green councillor David Gibson, who co-chairs the council’s Housing Committee, said that plans to build 800 new homes with genuinely affordable rents could be accomplished within five years rather than four.

Next year the council expects to build an extra 167 council homes, he said, while this year between 30 to 40 homes were likely to be bought by tenants exercising the “right to buy”.

Last year the council bought back 105 homes previously sold through the “right to buy” scheme and it intended to buy back another 105 in 2022-23.

Councillor Gibson said: “We’ve massively outstripped the losses through right to buy. We are the first administration to achieve that. I’m incredibly proud of that.

“That’s been the backbone of what we’ve achieved through the pandemic, being able to buy and bring (homes) into council ownership and meet the huge housing need.”

He said that buying existing homes and building new ones meant that the council had “outstripped” all the housing associations in Brighton and Hove when it came to providing affordable housing.

He said that he was disappointed that Labour councillors abstained from voting for this part of the council’s budget because the two parties had worked together on housing policy.

The joint Labour opposition leader John Allcock said that the housing crisis was the biggest challenge facing Brighton and Hove today and he blamed the right to buy policy.

He said: “The Thatcher government forced local authorities to sell off council homes in their millions through right to buy but did not allow them to use the funds to build more.

“It’s ridiculous. Before then, large proportions of the population lived in council homes and paid genuinely affordable rents.

“Social housing is affordable and avoids profiteering. It pays to provide good maintenance and good services to support those hosing and provides enough money to build more.”

The council has 11,700 rented and 2,900 leasehold properties, with rents held in the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) to cover the management and maintenance of council-owned homes.

The HRA has a capital investment programme worth £85 million, councillors were told, with £56 million earmarked for new council homes.

A further £20 million is proposed for improving housing quality and standards.

Green councillors voted to put the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) Budget and Capital Investment Programme for 2022-23 before the annual Budget Council meeting in a fortnight. Labour and the Conservatives abstained.

The budget, including the council tax, is due to be set by the full council at the Brighton Centre on Thursday 24 February. The meeting is scheduled to be webcast on the council’s website.