Lib Dem Leader Neil Williams has questioned an odd claim by the LabourCouncil that they have “saved” £5.8 million from the borough’s homelessnessbudget.

The comment was made this week, when the Labour Lead Member for Housing told all councillors in an email thatthere had been an “amazing £5.8m saving” in the homelessness budget.

However, he went on to admit the borough still has a homelessness crisis andsaid: “we’ve got even more households in temporary accomodation (sic),c5,000, than we had started the year with.”

Lib Dems say it seems a strange boast to suggest that this massive sum ofmoney has been ‘saved’ from the budget while homelessness remains in a stateof crisis in Haringey.

Neil Williams comments:

“Looking at the homelessness crisis in Haringey it is clear that this is nota saving – but a budget underspend. To admit that we are still in crisis buthave not even managed to spend the money allocated to the problem suggestsnot efficient, successful work but rather a failure to adequately deal withthe problem even when funds are available.

“If this ‘saved’ money had been invested in housing by Labour, thehomelessness situation in Haringey would not be quite so bad.”

Lib Dems say they will be tabling a question at the next full councilmeeting to ask for a full explanation of why the homelessness budget was notfully utilised.