by Paul O'Brien
Tuesday 11 March 2008
Participated in the first meeting of the DCLG National Housing Revenue Account (HRA) review group at Parliament today. It was really interesting and something that is long overdue, its time policymakers got over themselves and realised that Council Housing is a quality affordable option that is staring them in the face to deal with the affordable Housing crisis.
Although it was a Chatam House rules event I think I can tell you that the Housing Minister Caroline Flint opened up by outlining her views of the role of the review and we then split into two groups of ten to fifteen people to discuss the terms of reference we had. I was in the group with the other DCLG Minister present, Ian Wright and he quickly threw things open to views. I steamed in straight away and said I thought the scope was to narrow and we needed to consider issues such as local authorities being involved in new build and the wider role that local authorities had other than Housing. I was pleasantly surprised to find a number of people supported this view. We will see what happens as to incorporation of this in the review.
The review will not be finalised until next year with findings not implemented until October 2009. Hopefully we will have regular involvement in this group and I will continue to pursue APSEs lobbying position in this area.
