LibDem policy to buy more homes for rent on open market also set to be adopted

A major new report on the York Councils Housing Revenue Account is set to be debated next week.

There are two pieces of good news in it.

First the Council is set to abandon its plans to hive off its Council housing to an “Arm’s Length Management Organisation”. The justification for this always seemed very fragile and recent revelations about the way in which some of these “ALMOs” have operated would have been enough to cause a rethink.  The Grenfell Towers Inquiry may reveal even more.

Now claims that the government would continue to force down Council house rents, making the housing account unviable, have proved to be groundless.

Similarly, a government threat, to make Council’s sell off high value Council Houses when they became vacant, has also been struck into the long grass.

The Council said, when it originally announced the review, that it would spend £200,000 on consultants. The report doesn’t reveal how much of that budget has been spent. Hopefully not much

Perhaps even more importantly, a Liberal Democrat policy favouring increasing the number of Council homes available in the City, is about to be adopted.

The Council will use a £20 million fund to purchase empty properties on the open market. Most of this money will come from the accumulated profit currently showing on the housing account. New “right to buy” receipts will also be used.

Some former Council houses will be repurchased while other empty properties may also be brought into use.

This was the policy so bitterly opposed by Labour when they were in office in the City between 2011 and 2015. Prices were lower then, so more might have been achieved if an initiative had been taken more quickly.

How precisely the £20m fund will be managed is unclear. Hopefully it will not be used as an excuse for a risky cavalier foray into housing development.

Full marks though to the Council’s Executive for at least trying to address the housing problems in the City.