Haringey’s Lib Dem councillors have expressed their anger at Haringey Council’s decision to suspend external decorating projects in the borough because it is ‘not one of the criteria for meeting the Decent Homes Standard’.

The news was broken to council tenants in a newsletter sent out in August and cites the Labour Government’s ‘15% reduction in the money available for housing maintenance’ as the reason behind the suspension of external works which will affect over 150 locations from Tottenham to Highgate.

Haringey Council said that the Governments Decent Homes Standard has to be met by 2010 and means that every home must:

• be fit for human habitation
• be in good state of repair
• have certain standard of facilities
• have effective heating and insulation

The Lib Dems are angered that the Labour-run Council has ditched plans for external decorations because the Labour Government is starving them to starve them of money needed to carry out the long overdue decoration of properties.

Lib Dem Leader Cllr Neil Williams comments:

“A combination of successive Conservative and Labour Governments has under-funded council housing and as a result it has been in a poor state of repair for over 20 years. It is disgraceful that planned and necessary external work is being suspended because the Government has cut back funding for housing maintenance.

“The Labour-run Council must stand up for local tenants and lobby the Government for unconditional extra money to bring the borough’s dilapidated housing stock up to standard without cancelling necessary external work.”