London HCA chief suggests local authorities short on funds to refurbish council homes should knock them down and rebuild instead. The London chief of the Homes and Communities Agency has advised local authorities that have lost out on funding for refurbishing council homes to consider knocking them down and rebuilding instead. The news follows a decision to divert £150m of funding for the Decent Homes refurbishment programme into Gordon Brown’s £1.5bn package to build new housing. The communities department this week announced a shortlist of 270 schemes for nearly £1bn of Kickstart funding as part of the package. David Lunts, director of the HCA for London, where six councils have been hit by the diverted funding, said they should respond by considering a more radical approach than simply improving homes. Lunts is chairing a task force that is looking at how councils should deal with the loss of funding.
He said: “This raises other ways to achieve decent homes. In some cases it might make more sense to rationalise the stock or redevelop an existing estate.” He added: “There may be money available for estate renewal and affordable new build and things like that.”
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