15 August 2008
Immediate changes to the housing finance system come top of a list of demands made by local authority housing officers, a survey shows.
Senior officers in 25 authorities that still manage their homes described the housing revenue account system as 'volatile, unfair, unworkable and unsustainable'.
While transitional arrangements are needed to move away from the system, none of the councils could afford to buy themselves out of it.
The survey, carried out by the Association of Retained Council Housing, could not find a single aspect of the HRA system that councils wished to keep.
'We collect £26m a year in rent, but this year over £11m of that is going back in negative subsidy,' said one officer.
When it was suggested that councils in negative subsidy should buy themselves out and become self-financing, another officer replied: 'We are debt free — I can't see why we should get into debt to buy ourselves out.'
While the authorities surveyed were confident of meeting the decent homes standard by 2010, there was concern about the long-term cost of repairs and maintenance.
The new Homes and Communities Agency was welcomed, but officers doubted whether their councils could contribute significantly to the government's target of building 3 million homes by 2020.
PFaug2008
