Like many others, I have been inundated with political leaflets concerning the upcoming General Election – especially from the Conservative candidate Oliver Dowden.
As I thought that his leaflets may shed some light on the exposure by Inside Housing magazine, from a Freedom of Information request, that his government had siphoned off £358million of the cash from their right to buy scheme since 2012 had gone directly into government coffers, nearly a quarter – this is a monumental scandal by anyone’s yardstick considering the amount of homeslessness.
According to the same request, £1.54billion has been generated by the aforementioned scheme, whereas only £588.3m had been used to build replacement homes, of which only 4,500 had been started since 2012, £368.3m was used to repay housing debt, apart from other monies going into general council funds, repurchasing of homes and administration.
Like many others, I have recently received my council tax bill for 2015/16. Last December, it was announced that councils have been forced to spend more than £22m in taxpayers’ cash on academy conversions in the past two years, according to the Local Government Association, this omission doesn’t even merit an explanation.
Finally, I most sincerely hope, the Borehamwood & Elstree Times will spare us the spectacle of those responsible congratulating themselves on what ‘a jolly good job they are doing’.
Jim Dry
Morpeth Avenue, Borehamwood
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