Labour Councillors have condemned the decision by Southwark’s Lib Dem-Tory Executive to delay the publication of the borough’s new housing strategy by at least three months.

The administration had been timetabled to publish its 2009-16 Housing Strategy at the June executive meeting on Tuesday this week (23/06/2009). But the publication date has now slipped until at least the 29 September, meaning that the majority of the first year covered by the plan will already have elapsed before it is signed-off.

Southwark Labour’s spokesperson for Housing Management, Cllr Ian Wingfield, said

“The Lib Dem-Tory coalition has always acted like it doesn’t have a strategy for dealing with the borough’s chronic housing problems. Now we know that they literally don’t have one. If the Executive can’t piece together a coherent strategy for improving housing, what hope is there of them meeting their targets for decent homes, injecting a bit of customer focus into the unresponsive repairs service, or providing a fairer billing system for its leaseholders? 'The Executive has shown yet again its utter disregard and contempt for tenants and leaseholders. First by demoting the importance of housing in Southwark through abolishing the housing department, now forestalling a housing strategy and in seeking to abolish all rights to arbitration in the future

Labour’s spokesperson for Regeneration, Cllr Chris Page said:

“With Southwark’s major regeneration projects running massively behind schedule and with increased uncertainty over the Executive’s ability to deliver the best deal for the borough, delaying the publication of the housing strategy sends out all the wrong signals. The last seven years have been characterised by a disastrous lack of leadership over the major projects in the borough – and there is no sign of this changing.”