‘Full review’ to be held over empty homes debacle
THE Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) has requested a ‘full review’ of Rossendale’s failed Empty Homes scheme.
The borough council was appointed to run a the £5 million project to refurbish hundreds of homes across east Lancashire – of which only 82 were in Rossendale – in 2012.
But the scheme ran into difficulties when AAAW Ltd, the firm the council appointed to oversee it, went into liquidation in 2015, meaning the council had to step in.
An opposition councillor has claimed the failure of the project has cost the council more than £4 million.
Council leaders say the review will result in the completion of the longawaited external audit which will shed light on the circumstances around the collapse of AAAW Ltd.
Bosses say that a ‘complex police fraud investigation’ into the scheme is also still ongoing.
At a meeting of Rossendale’s full council, Conservative finance spokesman councillor Brian Essex requested an update on the Empty Homes project, and asked for assurances that the borough would not take on any more costs.
Coun Essex asked: “I am led to understand that over £4million has gone from our coffers and the situation’s still not been resolved. Will the leader of the council give an undertaking that within the time frame she has mentioned this scheme will be closed?”
Coun Barnes said: “Over 200 properties are currently being managed by Calico, the housing organisation based in Burnley. Day-to-day financial responsibility for those properties has moved over to them as well for all but three properties. The final three will transfer shortly.
“As a result of a number of external factors the HCA have increased their demand from Rossendale around this project, requesting a full review of certification and all papers in this.
“The deadline for completing this review is November 8. This is a challenging deadline but ultimately this will lead to the external audit being completed shortly after.
“There is a lot of work gone into this scheme over the last two, three years. It is a very challenging and complex project for the council to sort out.
“It’s certainly my feeling that as an organisation we are at the latter stage of dealing with some of these properties, however there is still a complex police fraud investigation that continues. I agreed that all the detail around the scheme will be made available once we have it.”
In a statement, the HCA said: “All allocations made by the HCA are subject to the conditions laid out in the Affordable Housing Capital Funding Guide. This stipulates that a sample of schemes are selected annually within the Compliance Audit process. The local HCA team can also request that a special audit be carried out. Following the responses to the...audits from Rossendale BC, the HCA thought it was appropriate that a Special Audit be carried out. The HCA Special Audit identified that there were a number of breaches of the conditions of grant set out in the Affordable Housing Capital Funding Guide and Empty Homes contract. Rossendale BC is working to rectify this situation.”