Cuts in home cash ‘defy logic’ claim

Oldham Council Cabinet reports

COUNCILLORS last night gave their backing to £2.5 million plans to improve more than 650 private homes.

The move will be made despite a grant allocation being slashed by nearly £700,000, although council chiefs have vowed to fight to get it back.

Councillor John McCann, Cabinet member for community services and housing, said: “We are making the best use of reduced resources, although I can’t see why they have been cut. Need in Oldham is as much as it ever was.”

Council leader Howard Sykes added: “I can give the assurance that the issue is being pursued by a variety of people in a variety of ways.”

The council wants to improve housing conditions across the borough and councillors last night pledged their support in a bid to bring empty homes back into use, to repair and decorate properties and provide disabled facilities.

The proposals come despite a cut of nearly £700,000 in the grant allocation

The council is to get just over £3.2 million from 4NW, a board responsible for dishing out money to local authorities for housing initiatives.

It was also in line for a further £386,000, but a funding blow means it will now get just £2.565 million.

To add to the upset, Oldham is one of only two local authorities in Greater Manchester to get a cut, with seven getting an increase and one staying the same.

A similar scheme brought more than 200 empty homes in Oldham back into use last year, and this year’s plans will also see 100 properties in Derker and Werneth benefit from a major facelift scheme, while Glodwick will see 47 homes improved.

Seventy homes will get disabled facilities, while energy efficiency measures such as Warm Front grants will continue to be supported.

Landlords renting out private properties will be offered incentives of up to £500 to carry out minor repairs.

Labour member Councillor Dave Hibbert posed the question that the cut could be a consequence of an underspend of £139,000 last year, but Councillor Sykes said: “There was some logic to that, but there is no logic to the cut.”

Members were told the underspend last year was from an extra pot of money allocated to the borough, and the cut this year was purely down to a change in criteria.


No money - but we’ll do our best

COUNCILLORS have promised to do the best they can to repair council houses, despite money for repairs drying up.

Some 450 council houses in Oldham will benefit from £9.5 million set aside for major repairs, which include new central heating, windows and rewiring.

The biggest schemes are planned for Henley Street and Higginshaw village, but the council will struggle to make headway with less than a third of the money it had at the height of the Decent Homes programme.

Councillor John McCann, Cabinet member for housing and community services, told last night's meeting: “We are trying to make the best use of the money available.”

He explained in the run up to the meeting that the council’s financial situation was “very difficult.”

He said funding was drying up, and no money had come in from right-to-buy sales of council housing so far this financial year.


Blooming disgrace

COUNCILLOR David Hibbert criticised the £200,000 spent by Oldham council on Britain in Bloom, while plans for alley gating “seem to have been neglected”.

The Cabinet Labour member for regeneration, said: “Alley gating is a key project regarding Oldham being a confident place, and it seems strange that it is being neglected while £200,000 can be spent on planters and hanging baskets in the centre of Oldham.”

Council leader Howard Sykes insisted alley gating was not being ignored, and said a report was due to be released in the next few weeks which covered both this matter and other related issues.


Delays to renewal

OLDHAM council is reeling against yet more cuts which affect the borough’s houses — and the people who live in them.

A cut in funding means the Oldham and Rochdale Pathfinder gets only 90 per cent of the money it had hoped for.

Oldham’s share of the £27 million handout is £13.3 million, but the organisation has been told it can bid for the extra 10 per cent that has been lopped off its allocation.

The move means further delays in the Housing Market Renewal scheme, with plans for Derker already on hold until October when an appeal against the Secretary of State’s decision will be heard in the Court of Appeal.

In Hathershaw, a compulsory purchase order on the Borough Mill triangle area is expected to be made around November.

Councillor John McCann, Cabinet member for housing and community services, said: “It’s vital for morale and the image of the town the money we have is spent on clearing and building rather than boarding up.”

Councillor David Hibbert added: “Housing Market Renewal in Oldham has always had cross-party support.

“Our priority has been to make sure Werneth, Derker and Freehold get the best possible deal they can.”


Forward planning

The council’s corporate plans see Oldham as a university town with safe, clean and green neighbourhoods, suitable housing and quality services in the coming years.

Presented in its draft form to Cabinet, council leader Howard Sykes said it was still in the development stage and councillors had time to add to the final plan.

The plan refers to it being “exciting times” for both the council and the borough, and having faced the problems of the past it is now ready to face the future with renewed confidence, despite the difficult economic climate.

It says a root and branch review of how things are done and how money is spent has sparked a major improvement plan to transform Oldham’s economy, society and services.