BROWN REVERSES COUNCIL HOUSE DEMOLITION DERBY

24-07-2007

In the wake of the government's pledge to create more affordable homes, The Stirrer can reveal that Birmingham City Council has demolished 20,000 council houses in the last six years - reducing the stock by 23%.

So where have these flats and houses gone? And why did they disappear?

The answer is that they’ve been demolished and the land sold off to developers - often to create new private estates with bigger homes accommodating fewer people.

You might think that this is a ludicrous policy at a time when the demand for low cost and rented property has never been higher. And you’d be right.

But the local authority isn’t entirely to blame.

They’ve been under financial pressure from Whitehall to meet the Decent Homes Standard - and providing tenants with double-glazing and up to date central heating doesn’t come cheap.

There’s no easier way to fund it than flogging off your land.

Birmingham hasn’t been slow to spot the opportunity.

Papers for the city’s cabinet meeting next Monday show that this year they aim to rake in £23 million from this source alone; and the figure rises to £104 million by April 2008.

The local authority has been criticised for selling too much land at top dollar to wealthy developers and squeezing out the less affluent housing associations; so much so that the city’s central government allocation for social housing has been reduced.

But if they hadn’t maximised their assets, no doubt they would have faced flak for that too. They were, after all, only obeying orders.

Now, hoping that we won’t notice the screeching gear change, Number 10 is talking about investing £8billion in affordable homes between 2008 and 2011, and creating 50,000 social homes a year.

Councils will actually be allowed to build houses again instead of demolishing them, and they’ll be able to keep all of the rent too, reducing the need to sell off land.

It is, in short, a classic u-turn, and a welcome one at that - albeit just a decade too late to halt the local council demolition derby.