Haringey Council admitted last week that it is so far behind schedule in its plan to halve the number of residents in temporary accommodation by March 2010 that it has changed the current target.

Documents released to Haringey Council’s Cabinet meeting on 16th June 2009 showed that Haringey Council was 520 behind the 4,000 target set for this stage in the project. The response of Haringey Council has been to change the target to make it “more realistic”.

Cllr Bevan, who is in charge of the Council’s housing, seemed to be unaware of the change saying, “As far as I am aware the temporary accommodation target has not been changed.” He was quickly corrected by council officers who said that the targets had been “re-cast”.

Liberal Democrats have branded the strategy a failure and have said that fiddling with targets is a disgrace which is of no comfort to the thousands of local residents living in inadequate housing throughout the borough.

Cllr Matt Davies, Liberal Democrat housing spokesperson, comments:

“This is an admission that Haringey Council is failing so many residents who continue to be stuck in temporary accommodation.

“Instead of recognising their failure and trying to do something to improve their performance, Haringey Council has simply reduced the target to try and hide their failure.

“Haringey Labour has no solutions so instead they fall back on fiddling with targets and creating confusion – even confusing their own councillor in charge of the borough’s housing.”

Lynne Featherstone MP adds:

“Week after week I see the human face of Haringey Council’s failure – residents who have been in temporary accommodation for years with no realistic prospect of change. The news that, yet again, a Labour strategy has failed will come as no surprise to them but should not be allowed to continue.”