ST ALBANS LIBDEMS GIVE KEY EVIDENCE AT PARLIAMENTARY DAY OF ACTION FOR CAMPAIGN TO DEFEND COUNCIL HOUSING

12.00.00am GMT Wed 23rd Jan 2008

St Albans was chosen to have the final word in the grand surroundings of Committee Room 16 in the House of Commons.

St Albans Liberal Democrats gave the closing evidence at the end of yesterday's day of action in Parliament organised by the national Defend Council Housing campaign. Cllr Aislinn Lee presented the St Albans case, supported by Leader of the Council Robert Donald and St Albans LibDem parliamentary candidate Sandy Walkington. They were joined by councillors Alison Steer, Geoff Churchard, David Poor and Allan Witherick.

Cllr Aislinn Lee, Leader of the Council Robert Donald and St Albans LibDem Parliamentary candidate Sandy Walkington plus Councillors Alison Steer, Geoff Churchard, David Poor and Allan Witherick.

Over twenty delegations from all over the country gave oral evidence throughout the day (22 January), and St Albans was chosen to have the final word in the grand surroundings of Committee Room 16 in the House of Commons. The St Albans evidence was listened to attentively by Austin Mitchell MP, chairman of the All-Party Council Housing Group, and by LibDem and Labour parliamentary colleagues including former ministers, before the MPs wound up the day with a series of speeches.

Cllr Lee told the MPs about the achievements of St Albans Council in meeting and beating Government targets for Decent Homes and energy efficiency. She highlighted the unfairness of a system whereby next year nearly one half of St Albans council tenants' rents is going to be taxed away by central government instead of staying in the district. St Albans council had blazed a trail in promoting environmental sustainability with the Smallford eco-house and the improvements in the Marford Road houses in Wheathampstead - and now the benefits of these projects were being put at risk by the Government's confiscation of St Albans housing revenue.

"We do not understand why council tenants, many of whom are among the least well off in our community, should have the money that they pay for their accommodation skimmed off in this way," Cllr Lee said. "No other group of householders is taxed in this way on the money that they pay to occupy their homes."

The MPs applauded the St Albans evidence and particularly its emphasis on the role of local housing authorities in promoting sustainability. The evidence will form a key chapter in a report to be published of the whole day's proceedings. The MPs are also going to be tabling amendments to the current Housing Bill which is going through Parliament so that there is a level playing field for council housing in places like St Albans.

ENDS

For more information please call Cllr Aislinn Lee on 07786 984729 or Sandy Walkington on 07802 177317

Read about the Defend Council Housing Campaign at http://www.defendcouncilhousing.org.uk/dch/

Defending Council Housing in St Albans:Presentation to Parliament by St Albans Liberal Democrats 22 January 2008

St Albans in context

1. St Albans District Council covers a largely affluent area comprising St Albans City, the town of Harpenden and a number of surrounding villages. It is profoundly affected economically by its location in Green Belt just twenty miles north of London. There is a huge demand for housing, driving prices up to some of the highest levels outside London. St Albans was recently voted into the Mayfair slot in the Monopoly "Here and Now" special edition.

2. However, not all of the population of St Albans are wealthy commuters. There is a large older population, particularly in the villages and there are a number of areas of deprivation. The provision of affordable housing and social housing for rent is an essential part of retaining a viable local community in St Albans. Our assessment of housing need is around 900 people at any time. The current council waiting list is 1,633.

3. There is an additional significant issue with the carbon footprint of St Albans, partly through the lifestyle of its residents but also through the relative age of the local housing stock.

St Albans Record in Council Housing

4. St Albans is proud of its record in providing social housing. The current council housing stock is about 5,200 units. At its peak, in the 1970s it was about 12,000. St Albans was last able to build its own council housing in 1990.

5. St Albans believes that it is a good landlord and this was wholeheartedly endorsed by tenants when it carried out a Housing Options Appraisal in 2005. 94% of tenants voted to stay with the council.

6. We attained the Decent Homes standard in 2006, four years ahead of the date required by Government. We have an average SAP (energy efficiency rating) for our stock of 70.6. The most recent data that we have for the private sector in St Albans (including private rented) is 47.

7. All of our homes have fully controllable gas central heating systems installed and we started fitting condensing boilers approximately 15 years ago, way ahead of legislation.

8. We also began externally insulating solid wall properties about 15 years ago. Although considerably more expensive to provide than cavity wall insulation, we are determined that residents living in these hard to heat properties get the same benefits as those living in homes with cavity insulated walls.

9. Although legislation requires grade 'E' windows to be installed, we are currently installing 'C' rated double glazed windows. This means they are extremely efficient with reduced cold bridging by having warm edge technology, being argon filled and having low emissivity glass.

10. We are particularly proud of our nationally acclaimed Eco house in Smallford. It recently won the Gold award in the Green Apple awards. The Eco House is a pilot study of how to refurbish traditional council homes using sustainable materials where possible, including energy efficient products and renewable technologies. Full details of this are provided in a separate Appendix.

11. The aim of this project was to apply the learning to the rest of the Council's housing stock so that residents would benefit from lower fuel bills and the overall carbon footprint of the district would be reduced. In addition we believed that the learning could be transferred to the private sector, both owner-occupied and rented.

12. Learning from this project we were able to refurbish a number of our properties in one of our villages. Eighteen houses in Marford Road, Wheathampstead were identified as being below standard when it came to keeping warm but now they have been brought up to date with external wall insulation, energy saving double glazing, loft insulation and solar panels.

13. The works should halve residents' heating bills with the solar panels providing up to 55% of the annual hot water needs. Some of the residents have already benefited from being able to use just solar energy this summer.

14. These houses now meet the highest 'airtight' standard and are therefore within the best standard across the district. The addition of the solar panels along with the external cladding and new high quality windows on these homes also means that the need to draw down energy from the National Grid decreases, (the solar panels also work in winter) and in turn this reduces the fuel bills for our tenants.

Current financials

15. The current rental income from St Albans council tenants is £21 million.

16. In the current financial year central government is taking £7.6 million from this income - equating to about 38 pence in every pound paid by tenants in rent.

17. We have just learned that in the 2008 - 2009 financial year central government will take £9.7 million - equating to about 46 pence in every pound paid by tenants in rent.

18. This is having a profound effect on our ability to deliver a decent service to our tenants, as detailed below. We do not understand why council tenants, many of whom are among the least well off in our community, should have the money that they pay for their accommodation skimmed off in this way. No other group of householders is taxed in this way on the money that they pay to occupy their homes.

19. The effect of this aggressive confiscation of St Albans council housing revenue will be to make it much more difficult to maintain the Decent Homes standard.

20. It will also make it very difficult to apply the learning from the Eco House to the rest of the Council's housing stock, depriving residents of the benefit from lower fuel bills and damaging our ability to reduce the over all carbon footprint of the district.

21. In 2008 - 2009 St Albans Council will again be forced to surrender 75% of any capital receipts from Right To Buy sales. This places severe restrictions on our ability to meet our Strategic Housing responsibilities, address homelessness, fund our contribution to Disabled Facilities Grants, and provide any additional affordable housing.

22. Over the last four years St Albans has had £32 million taken by central government - both from negative housing subsidy and from the Right To Buy pooling arrangements. This £32 million would have enabled us to provide an additional 200 affordable homes for people currently in need.

St Albans and Housing Associations

23. St Albans has a good relationship with several Housing Associations. We have, in the past, been able to subsidise, both financially and through providing land either free of charge or at a reduced price, their provision of affordable accommodation against which we have nomination rights.

24. But by themselves they cannot deliver our agenda or even the national agenda of providing enough affordable rented accommodation to meet current and future needs. Housing Associations can complement our role as a social landlord but we do not believe that they are the sole answer.

25. In particular, local authority provided social housing offers genuine local accountability for tenants and for the wider population.

The future for St Albans

26. The Green Belt location of St Albans and its proximity to London continue to attract many wealthy commuters. The lack of suitable building land means that the trend in local house building is to see smaller, affordable, properties demolished and five bedroom houses put in their place. This is a descending spiral. The children of these families grow up to find that there are no affordable houses to meet their needs. The gap between the haves and have-nots is widening at an alarming rate. Hobbling the Council's ability to provide social housing is leading to a community that is not sustainable. Jobs that are vital but lower paid can only be filled through inward commuting - there are currently over 20,000 people commuting into St Albans over a transport system that is stretched to breaking point.

Right to Buy sales in St Albans

HRA NEGATIVE HOUSING SUBSIDY

2004/05 5,556

2005/06 6,730

2006/07 7,019

2007/08 (draft) 7,592