Housing Policy

Kingston Conservatives believe that the last eight years have been the worst in living memory for our residents who live in council-owned homes. The Kingston Federation of Residents Associations, which represents all council tenants and leaseholders in the borough, recently highlighted the Council’s own admission that nearly one in three of all its council homes are in such a poor condition that they fail the Government’s own very lowly ‘decent homes’ standard.

Conservative Councillors have campaigned for years for action to be taken. The Lib Dems have repeatedly blamed the Labour Government but have done nothing to resolve the problem. Their failure to work with our tenants and leaseholders has resulted in endless meetings without any progress being made.

Last year, the Lib Dems spent over £100,000 on consultant’s fees testing the opinion of residents before bottling any further discussion on the options that are currently available, such as transferring its properties to a benevolent housing association with the funds to carry out immediate major improvements. Yet the Council’s own tenants’ survey revealed that, when asked if they would support a transfer to a new landlord IF all their tenancy rights were protected and it led to improvements to their homes, a MAJORITY said they would!

Following next month’s election, a Conservative Administration will immediately open negotiations with the Federation to agree a timetable for them to jointly put together a business plan that will support a tenant-led stock transfer. We will also consider a funding package that will give them the resources they need to build up inclusive resident representation and support. This funding will be linked to achieving agreed milestones on a path to the ultimate transfer of housing from RBK being completed during 2012/13.

We will not exclude anyone from the process and guarantee to consult openly and fully on the issues that concern residents most, such as ensuring the maintenance of all tenancy rights including their legal security to continue living in their homes after ownership is transferred. This process will be led by tenants and fully supported by a Conservative-controlled Council.

 Councillor Ian George, Shadow Housing Spokesman said: “We cannot go on like this. It’s a disgrace and heart breaking that so many of our council tenants are asked to live in such poor housing conditions. It is also disheartening for our officers who do their best to handle the ever-rising tide of requests for repairs and renovations when their budgets are so tightly constrained.”

Councillor Paul Johnston, Chair of the Housing Consultative Committee added: “We need to work with council tenants and leaseholders and listen to them more. Both we and the Federation are determined to help residents take the lead in resolving their own housing needs. The question of future ownership has to be resolved if we are to unlock the much needed investment that is available through other social landlords, before we see our council estates crumble into even further decay.”

For further details contact Cllr Ian George on 07905 303674 and Cllr Paul Johnston on 07894 208234