From Philip Grant's original post. Read it HERE
Guest post by Philip Grant in a personal capacity
Dear Mr Grant
I hope you are well and had a good Easter. Thank you for giving me the right of reply here.
The figures in the council tax leaflet were correct at the time of printing, based on projected housing completions for the last and current financial year.
At the time of publishing the council tax booklet we were on track to oversee the delivery of 530 affordable homes in 2024-25. Construction projects are rarely straightforward and some of these homes will now be completed slightly later. Due to construction delays, 434 new affordable homes ended up being delivered and the remaining 96 are all due to be completed shortly. While the leaflet was due to be delivered at the end of the financial year, the lead-in times for printing and distribution meant that the artwork was finalised and sent to print on 20 February so the team had to rely on projections.
It is true that the council directly delivered 26 affordable homes (the figure you quote from the FOI response) in 2024-25. However, the infographic in the council tax leaflet was an attempt to give a very high-level summary of the breadth and depth of what the council has delivered in the past financial year on just two pages, and to describe these services and outcomes in ways that are accessible to everyone. In the process, ‘oversee the delivery of’ was simplified to ‘delivered’. I accept that this is an oversimplification where the language could have been clearer and we will bear this in mind, being more careful in the future. Making communications more accessible sometimes means using less precise, less technical language and this simplification was certainly not an attempt to mislead but was about better accessibility.
The article you have shared states that, since the council did not directly deliver many of these homes, they should not have been included in a summary of how residents’ council tax was spent – in fact, officers are actively involved in the delivery of these homes in all sorts of ways, from planning officers and others who negotiate with applicants to increase the percentage of affordable homes that form part of regeneration schemes across the borough, to housing colleagues who work with registered providers and residents on our housing waiting list, so council tax was used to get these homes delivered in the form of officer time.
All of these homes meet the definition of affordable housing under the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) and Greater London Authority (GLA) guidelines.
Regarding the 1,000 new council homes scheduled for completion this year, delays mean the projection has been adjusted to 899, with the remaining homes to follow. We're delighted our development in Church End with 99 new council homes, is on track to be completed soon. In a housing crisis, councils need to use all methods at their disposal to increase the supply of homes - buying homes from developers is standard practice and local people then benefit from genuinely affordable rents. Whether built by a registered provider, directly by the council or acquired through planning agreements, these homes form part of our commitment to increasing affordable housing.
Brent has one of the best records in London for housebuilding, we were one of only three London boroughs to exceed our housing delivery target last year and approved a total of 3,266 new homes, making us the second highest borough for housing approvals overall.
In relation to the ‘Your Brent’ magazine and the Council Tax leaflets, we ensure that the content complies with the Code of Recommended Practice on Local Authority Publicity, and this is, in fact, included within Brent’s constitution.
The principles contained within the Code specifically refer to the need for such publications to be lawful, cost effective, objective, even-handed, appropriate, have regard to equality and diversity and ensuring that publications are issued with care during periods of heightened sensitivity.
The content contained within the magazine and the Council Tax leaflet is factual. Officers obtain quotes from members acting as the official council spokesperson for the topics covered. The council does not routinely state what political party members represent (unless reporting on election results e.g. page 7 of the spring Your Brent Magazine reports on the Alperton by-election result) and care is taken to ensure that the issues covered are topics that are important to the people in the Borough.
Best wishes to you
Kim
Kim Wright (she/her)
Chief Executive
London Borough of Brent
19 comments:
So 26 affordable homes delivered by the council, however, what type of affordable? Obviously more than the Poverty Commission minimum price. The worst part of all this is the misrepresentation from the mouths of Cllrs and officers alike. It is becoming common knowledge that the Council cannot attract specialist staff, because they wouldn't be able to afford to live in this overpriced borough.
Ms Wright says "Making communications more accessible sometimes means using less precise, less technical language" - do Brent Council assume that council tax paying residents are all stupid???
26 affordable homes delivered by the council!!!!! and how many of their Social Housing units did we lose to Right to Buy? Also, affordable rents defined as 60-80% of extortionate private market rates are beyond most Brent residents. As for the rip off Affordable product known as Shared Ownership, it should be made illegal until the schemes become a lot more equitable between the buyer and landlord. How is it right that someone buys 50% and when they come to sell, their share is only worth 25% of the 'Market Valuation' due to the constant inflating of the unowned portion, we must not forget that rent was paid on the other portion at eyewatering rates of inflation relating to escalating market rents driven by HMG subsidies for private landlords.
We have an economy here in Britain that has been built on house price and rent inflation above that of salaries for many many years, to the point that our children will not be able to afford to live in places like Brent.
By how much have they reduced the Council's waiting list is what I want to know?
Agree with the councilman here, how can we expect brent council to deliver homes when the majority of UK homebuilding is done by the private sector. This aint the post-war times anymore!!
With all the super wealthy people leading the UK due to tax policies there will be even less money available and middle income and low earners will be hit by higher taxes...
"The Chancellor’s reforms could cost the UK more than £10 billion a year in lost economic growth, totalling £111bn over the next decade, according to the Adam Smith Institute think-tank."
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/london-millionaire-exodus-moscow-b1221474.html
Heard on the radio that one wealthy family just quit UK because of these policies leaving their 45 employees jobless and some homeless too.
In answer to Anonymous (25 April at 12:17), last year Brent was saying it had 33,000 people on its housing waiting list.
A recent quote in a Council press release, attributed to Cllr. Donnelly-Jackson, who now appears to be the Cabinet Lead Member for housing, gave the current figure as 34,000.
Those figures may not be entirely accurate, as the Chief Executive says that the Council simplifies the numbers it puts out, to make them more 'accessible'!
Brent love patronising residents, or, mor often than not, ignoring them.
It's gone up of course, because the products are unaffordable
Please change first paragraph of the above - it should say "
"With all the super wealthy people LEAVING the UK due to tax policies there will be even less money available and middle income and low earners will be hit by higher taxes..."
Thanks
Great, the rich will be less able to buy up all the assets, and especially all our homes. This government really need to tax them, or ask them to leave and stop sponging off us.
I believe Philip Grant. His analysis is very clear and confirm the facts. The Council statements are LIES! ("Oversee delivery = Delivered" according to Brent Council chief Executive who calls it "over simplification").
The Job of the Brent Chief Executive and of Brent Council is to provide local residents with clear facts and NOT Labour Party propaganda.
Thousands of £ of our money is spent on fueling the Councillor M Butt's ego with all those staged photos which serve very little purpose. Instead of doing their job of serving local people Council money and officer time is spent on all this rubbish rather than serving local people.
On the separate issue the Housing Waiting List might as well be scrapped. The chances of anyone on that waiting list getting a Council home (or affordable home - what ever the definition) in Brent is virtually Zero.
If the list was closed and scrapped we could get Cllr Butt with another photo opportunity and boasting slogan "I cleared the Brent Housing Waiting list at a stroke".
Thank you Philip and Wembley Matters for not giving up on exposing Brent Council lies.
Affordable homes in Brent or in London are not affordable in my opinion. Personally more Council homes should be made available in order to decrease the 25,000+ of people on the Brent council waiting list. Perhaps some of our young people can then have aa place to call home. Too many of our young people cannot afford to rent privately or even to buy.
Taking a bit of a sideways step here but how can it be allowed that Towerblock Tatler has her new position of Head of Labour Group Office at LGA while still being a Councillor? Feels like there’s a conflict there.
The rich sponge off us? What about those not working who claim benefits and sit back and expect a council house???
How is this exodus of families affecting the housing waiting lists, surely making it easier?
"Primary schools could begin to be shut in outer London boroughs if pupil numbers continue to plummet amid an exodus of families from the capital, a leading housing campaigner has warned.:
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/outer-london-school-closures-family-exodus-b1225030.html
The council deliberately don’t employ capable and well trained personnel and mainly rely on friends and recommendations to join their workforce. They pay huge amounts to various employment agencies who don’t make a difference in the overall quality of their employees skills. Most managers are promoted based on how they get along with the high managers and so on. The overall bad management is felt in the data and lack of transparency about their performance in terms of tax revenue and size of the budget to look after the most vulnerable residents.
Most of the Brent Council officers we've met don't live in Brent, they have worked at BC for years on final salary pensions and they are highly unionised, displaying their council ID passes on union lanyards.
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