'AREAS FOR IMPROVEMENT' NEEDED IN HOUSING

5.00.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Wed 6th Sep 2006

The Liberal Democrat Group on Torbay Council have welcomed the Council's 'good' rating following its Housing Inspection, but have expressed alarm at the "areas in need of improvement" and "barriers to improvement" that the Audit Commission have highlighted.

According to the Audit Commission Report the areas in need of improvement include:

"there is a weak corporate approach being taken to improve diversity and a lack of information about the needs of the local community;

not all key strategies are fully aligned to meet identified needs, particularly around the affordable homes target; and

there is no systematic approach to value for money, benchmarking has only recently started and at a corporate level, cost and performance information are not aligned."

The audit commission has also highlighted the following barriers to improvement:

"the Council is not reinvesting all housing receipts in its affordable housing priority;

Councillor capacity is mixed and there is a lack of consistent support for the Council's affordable housing priority; and

Planning and housing do not work together as they could in all instances."

The Leader of the Liberal Democrat Group on Torbay Council Cllr. Gordon Jennings said:

"The Report from the Audit Commission has highlighted the improvements to affordable housing that took place under the previous Liberal Democrat administration, and have picked up concerns that we also have that the current Conservative administration under Mayor Nick Bye do not have a commitment to affordable housing.

"This can be shown by the emphasis that the current Conservative administration puts on encouraging the private sector where the rents are high and encourages people to draw benefits rather than work because that is the only way they can pay the rent. More emphasis should be placed on supporting local people by building more affordable housing.

"The Council's rating for housing is welcome, but there are real concerns about the Conservative administration's commitment to affordable housing."