Southwark Labour councillor Ian Wingfield today said that the Lib Dem/Tory administration’s decision to hire a new Head of Housing Strategy and Options shows that the council should never have scrapped its housing department.

Southwark’s Lib Dems and Tories merged the council’s housing department with the environment department when they formed a coalition administration in 2006. But several recent failures have shown that that move left the council’s housing services in disarray, with experienced staff made redundant and vital responsibilities left undone.

Last month the Fire Brigade served the council with several enforcement notices for not carrying out fire risk assessments in blocks like Lakanal House where six people tragically died in a fire in July. And this month the council was criticised by an independent auditor for not adequately checking that maintenance on council housing was completed adequately.

Southwark Labour’s housing spokesman Cllr Ian Wingfield said:

“I welcome the decision to hire a new head of housing in this borough. Since 2006, when the council scrapped the housing department and made scores of experienced housing staff redundant, there has been an absence of leadership at the core of our housing services.

“That decision to scrap the housing department and merge it with environmental services was like a botched operation, with one head trying to control two bodies. As a result, vitally important jobs slipped through the middle and no one was ultimately responsible for it, there was no one to be held to account.

“This decision represents a reversal of policy. I think that the Lib De, administration should admit that, but the most important thing is that the changes are made so that these mistakes do not happen in the future.”