Wandsworth Borough Council And Council House Sales

EDM number 542 in 1993-94, proposed by Peter Hain on 08/02/1994.

That this House believes that Wandsworth Borough Council should discontinue its council house sales policy pending investigation by Rowland Little, district auditor; notes with concern that if the same criteria as were applied by John Magill, auditor to Westminster, were exercised by the Wandsworth auditor, the ruling Conservative councillors could be liable to a surcharge of up to ú23 million; further notes that Wandsworth Council committee agendas show that, like Westminster, the council had enough vacancies last year, 1,048, to meet all of its statutory housing requirements but chose to sell 315 empty properties on the open market, mainly in its priority sales areas and, as a result, had to put 382 families into bed and breakfast accommodation; notes Mr Magill's findings in paragraphs 107 and 110 that Westminster's designations of sales areas was not compatible with any reasonable treatment of category A medical cases and, noting Wandsworth has 290 households in category A essential medical need, believes its ability to meet their medical needs has been seriously undermined by Wandsworth's decision to sell empty council houses on the open market; notes the cost of bed and breakfast accommodation in Wandsworth in the 1993-94 year is ú6,906,000 and budgeted at ú6,359,000 and ú6,436,000 for the following two years, that forgone rent from keeping 300 properties empty pending sale could amount to ú900,000 a year and that the capital budget has specifically earmarked ú2.5 million for improvements to properties in sales areas, amounting to almost ú23 million; and believes that urgent action should now be taken to halt the selling of empty properties.

This motion has been signed by a total of 111 MPs, 1 of these signatures have been withdrawn.