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Government told to "get a grip" on Decent Homes Programme
19/03/10
Edited by Andy Jowett. The government needs to "get a grip" on its Decent Homes Programme (DHP), as improvements are needed in "almost every aspect" of the management of the project, the chairman of the Committee of Public Accounts has said.
Edward Leigh MP was speaking after the parliamentary panel published its report on the scheme, which aims to ensure that social housing is warm, weatherproof and fitted with reasonably modern facilities.
The representative for Gainsborough said that the Department for Communities and Local Government is spending millions on the DHP without "anywhere near enough" information being made available about its impact.
He added that its estimate of the programme's cost to the social housing sector - £19 billion - was unreliable because it had failed to take into account the impact of the initiative on not only councils, but also social registered landlords.
While builders, plumbers and electricians are estimated to have carried out improvements on around one million properties under the DHP, Mr. Leigh warned that the government will miss its target of bringing all social housing up to the standard by December 2010.
