Yesterday the Audit Commission published its latest verdict on Southwark and all other local councils in England and Wales. The verdict is contained within the Comprehensive Performance Assessment or CPA and shows Southwark as a 3 star (out of 4) authority which is improving well. This is good news but there is one striking feature about this year's scorecard - the fact that housing services have dropped from 3 stars to 2 stars and the only area of the Council where the score has fallen.
Southwark scored just 1 out of 4 on its performance indicators for managing council housing - and was judged as being below the lower threshold for rent collection and arrears; average re-let times; average weekly management costs; satisfaction of all tenants with Southwark's overall service and satisfaction with participation for all tenants.
It is clearly worrying that our housing services score has been marked down, but should not really come as a surprise to anyone who has any knowledge of the huge difficulties faced by tenants in Southwark. And it does suggest that the LibDems decision to put a Tory in charge of housing since May 2006 has been a huge mistake.
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2 comments:
Er Peter, is it not the Labour government (which is the party you represent in case you forot)which has imposed a below inflation financial package for not only Southwark but every council across in the country over the next three years?
Why the shortfall? Perhaps an expensive and pointless war in Iraq, or maybe to pay to replace the our stock of trident missiles?
You also claim to be proud to represent a party which tackles poverty, very good. I note that you skirted over the fact that the council plans get rid of temporary staff and the wardens (over five hundred i believe). Are they not people? Do they not have families? Do they not live in the borough? These measures will only increase poverty within southwark. It is not right that the council is prepared to close museums but it is utterley scandalous that there are plans to throw hundreds of people onto the scrap heap and you as an alleged representative of the people disregard all of this for some poorly placed political posturing. You truly are a beacon of New Labour Peter.
Felix
Any job losses are bad news for Southwark. The point I was making in my post about the budget; which you seem to have missed; is that there is no need for the cuts which the LibDems and Tories are making.
Labour's budget amendment puts £300,000 back into the community safety budget; puts no increase on Meals on Wheels and saves a local childrens museum. I'm not sure how that equates to support for job losses and increasing poverty? It seems to me that as a matter of common sense it does quite the opposite.
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