Labour concern ahead of mysterious housing meeting

Labour leader in Brighton and Hove, Councillor Gill Mitchell, has expressed her party’s concerns ahead of a meeting tomorrow (Friday) when the council’s cabinet are to meet in relation to a huge housing contract.

The emergency meeting, for which an agenda has not been released, concerns the Seaside Community Homes project, which proposes the modernisation of 499 council homes in a deal with Spanish bank Santander that is worth £30m.

Funding from Santander was agreed in April under the previous Conservative administration, which former council leader Mary Mears described as ‘one of the major success stories of the last 4 years‘, However, the move was first proposed in 2008 when the scheme was set for a £45m investment.

Labour say the scheme, which has already seen £1.2m worth of investment, is still not off the ground and is now said to be under threat following changes introduced by the current government.

Cllr Mitchell said: “We are extremely concerned over news that this deal to modernise hundreds of Brighton & Hove council homes is now at risk.

“Local taxpayers have already invested over a million pounds into this project which has suffered from substantial set-backs since talks began by the Tories in 2007.

“This delay to improvements for hundreds of council tenants’ homes is quite simply unacceptable and I really hope the Greens will not allow any further money to be wasted, will not allow the council to be placed at any further risk and will get on with modernising these homes as soon as possible.”

The meeting at Hove Town Hall is to be held tomorrow (Friday 16th September) at 3pm.

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Posted by Joseph Lewis on September 15, 2011. Filed under Brighton and Hove News,Conservatives,Council News,Featured,Green Party,Labour. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry