The leader of Greenwich Council has blasted new government proposals for social housing reform.

Communities secretary James Brokenshire announced yesterday a “fundamental rethink” on social housing following the Grenfell tragedy last June.

The measures include speeding up the complaints process and publishing league tables to highlight the performance of landlords.

In a joint statement with the councillor for housing Chris Kirby, Greenwich leader Danny Thorpe said the government had missed the chance to tackle “plummeting numbers” of social homes.

The green paper pledges a scheme to offer tenants the right to buy one per cent  of their home each year.

Green papers are government documents which set out policy ideas and enable ministers to consult on the suggestions.

A consultation has also been announced into how local authorities spend money from Right to Buy sales, as it looks to increase the number of council homes.

Challenges

In response, the councillors said: “This green paper has shown once again that the government has absolutely no answers to the housing challenges we face here in Greenwich.

“Warm words aren’t worth the paper they are written on without any commitment to the dedicated resources we need to build homes directly, for our communities.

“Unless the government makes concrete commitments now to invest in building significant numbers of truly affordable homes, in the right places, the chances of our young people ever getting a home they can afford remains bleak.

“This paper does absolutely nothing for ‘generation rent’ and thousands of young people in our borough who desperately want their own home.

“Our new housing delivery board has been set up to identify locations on estates and sites we own where we can build council housing, but the reality is that to really make a difference to the lives of our residents we need the government to provide the resources for house building.”

Housing

In a contentious move Greenwich’s cabinet recently agreed to sell three parcels of public land to private developers to build affordable flats.

The cabinet will reconsider its decision following a special scrutiny meeting where the scheme was criticised by councillors, despite the cabinet member in charge explaining the proposals would help pay for future council housing.

The number of households being placed in temporary accommodation in Greenwich has risen by more than 170 per cent in the last four years.

Planning permission has been granted for 2,380 new homes in the borough in the last year from March, and 331 of these have been earmarked to be affordable.

Opposition

Councillor Spencer Drury, Greenwich Conservatives housing spokesman, hit back at the council for failing to deliver council homes.

He said: “As the Centre for London recently made clear Greenwich Council does a poor job at delivering new council housing and its partner firm Meridian Homestart is one of the least effective in the capital. 

“In fact the council’s policy of spending millions of pounds buying homes on the open market, apart from being expensive, actually makes it harder for residents to buy their own home as it pushes the price up.  

“The truth is that the council is looking to blame the Government for its own failings, which are failing to build enough genuinely affordable homes, not negotiating properly with private developers building in Greenwich and reducing the supply of private housing by buying it up for its own purposes.

“A fresh approach from the Government to this difficult area is welcome, not least as since 2000 governments of all types have simply failed to get to grips with this issue and more homes for residents of all income levels need to be built.”