No repeat of ‘Empty Homes’ issue
LEGAL commitments to prevent the repeat of another ‘Empty Homes’ project collapse have been enshrined within the council’s constitution.
Councillors voted to update the constitution to ensure ‘robust project management’ principles will be followed in the future.
A report by monitoring officer Claire Birtwistle, presented to Rossendale’s full council, stated: “A lack of such principles were evident in the original management of the HCA Empty Homes scheme.”
The project to refurbish 474 homes across east Lancashire was run by AAAW Ltd, as agent on behalf of the Empty Homes Partnership, before going into liquidation in 2015.
The addition to the constitution will ensure a focus on business cases, measurable outcomes, governance and risk management.
At the full council meeting, finance chief Coun Patrick Marriott said: “The issues surrounding the failure of AAAW Ltd are often cynically misrepresented, sometimes in defamatory ways, and council should not confuse these misrepresentations with the very real issues council faced in successfully managing the recover.”
But Tory councillor Peter Steen hit back, saying it was not possible to say a collapse worth ‘in the region of £3million’ “doesn’t matter”.
He told the meeting: “The people of Rossendale don’t see it that way, it’s a shambles but there has never been any accountability from the council leader or the portfolio holder. The police investigation has been going on so long we’ll find the results in the jacket pocket of Lord Lucan riding Shergar – it’s not right.
“We need to know how much it’s cost, how much it’s going to cost and what damage it’s done to the council’s financial status.
“We fully support the [constitution] report, a pity it’s a couple of years too late, it could have saved a lot of embarrassment and costs but we got to eventually ensure the principles of robust project management.”
Tory group leader Coun Anne Cheetham said: “Whilst we are still having the repercussions from it, it has made us as an authority make sure we scrutinise future partnerships much more carefully. We are making sure that every ‘I’ is dotted and every ‘T’ is crossed so that we don’t lose any more from our revenue.”
Facit and Shawforth Coun Tom Aldred said the collapse of AAAW Ltd is ‘still a problem’ but that the scheme was also approved by a number of other councils.