Angus Housing Association has claimed reports going before councillors regarding the selection and appointment of a preferred social housing provider are “factually inaccurate and misleading.”
The association’s chairman, Hazel Farquhar, reacted angrily to two reports on the agenda of today’s meeting of Angus Council’s neighbourhood services committee.
DOMUS had been the front-runner in a three-horse race to become the area’s preferred registered social landlord developer, in response to a Scottish Government reform of affordable housing.
DOMUS comprising Hillcrest Housing Association, Home Scotland, Perthshire Housing Association and Servite Housing Association topped a government scoring system and was being recommended by neighbourhood services director Ron Ashton.
The group in second, Angus Housing Association, has indicated that the move will cost jobs in a group which has delivered over 1000 affordable homes over four decades.
Referring to the first report by council chief executive David Sawers, Ms Farquhar said it is wrong for the report to claim that Angus is the only local authority area administered by the Scottish Government’s Tayside and Forth Valley office not to have such a streamlined approach to housing development in place for 2011/12.’Factually wrong'”This is just factually wrong. It is totally misleading to tell the elected members this as the majority of council areas in Tayside and Forth Valley including Perth and Kinross, Stirling, Clackmannan and Falkirk councils will not have such arrangements in place for next financial year,” she said.
“Indeed, the only council in Tayside and Forth Valley that will is Dundee City Council.”
She then went on to criticise the comparison of savings of 5% made in procurement in Fife as being “totally without context.”
“This is again misleading. The amount of Housing Association Grant (HAG) available in Fife is more than five times that invested in Angus each year and there is clearly, therefore, a greater potential to make savings from procuring by volume.
“I also think that it should have been pointed out to elected members that Fife is not part of the Tayside and Forth Valley area and that the same criteria and key performance indicators were not, therefore, used as in Angus.”
Angus Housing Association is also angry with other aspects of the reports.
Ms Farquhar added, “The tone of these reports, which again unquestioningly refer to housing associations as inefficient deliverers of new build affordable housing, make me extremely angry.
Image used under Creative Commons courtesy of Flickr user woodleywonderworks.
“The reality is that we can build new two-storey, semi-detached, three-bedroomed cottages for a total cost of around £130,000 each. This includes the cost of buying land, all of our own in-house costs and professional fees for architects, etc. The public subsidy in HAG we get is on average around £75,000 per unit.
“I am advised, however, that Angus Council’s neighbourhood services committee approved a tender to build 10 houses in Carnoustie and Monifieth in October last year and the total cost will be more than £180,000 per house and that this includes £60,000 per house for buying and clearing the site for two houses in Monifieth. This is more than £50,000 per house higher than the current market price.
“As an experienced developer, Angus Housing Association would have ruled out any project that incurred such pre-construction costs at a feasibility stage as being poor value for money for the public purse.
“Even if Angus Council is only getting a government grant of £25,000 per unit, it really angers me that they can accuse us of being inefficient and taking steps that threaten the future of our four development staff while justifying unrealistic projects of this kind as good value.”
Ms Farquhar said her greatest concerns, however, are about the possibility that a preferred developer may be appointed without the tendering process being repeated.
“Having been in the public gallery the last time this was discussed by the committee, I find it hard to believe that we are now almost back to square one on this issue,” she said.