Council housing: "massive abuse"

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Mon 6th Apr 2009

A damaging report into council housing in Nottingham has revealed widespread abuse and corruption

An Audit Commission report has revealed a massive abuse in Nottingham City Council's Housing Department between 2003 & 2005. The report says "Failings … led to council houses not being allocated to those most in need as well as to jobs being awarded without going through the normal appointments process."

The Audit Commission pointed out that this happened some time ago, that all the senior officers involved have now left and that NCH now has sound systems.

Wrong Allocations

The report includes a number of case studies from individual allocations that were examined in detail. These include instances where:

Housing staff allocated a property to a member of staff ahead of other, more needy, applicants

A senior officer in Housing intervened to use the manual process to allocate a house to the partner of a housing service employee

A senior officer wrongly arranged for a single person known to him to be allocated a three-bedroom house

In one case a councillor claimed that one of a couple who applied for a house was his grandson - when he was not. The couple were given a house in a high demand area even though they were assessed as 'low need' and had been told they might have to wait for years.

Council let people down

Alison Rigg from the Audit Commission said: "The people of Nottingham have been let down by the council's housing service".

The Liberal Democrats on the City Council have called on the Chief Exec to ask for a police investigation. This was refused by the ruling group at a council meeting on 9th February.

Call for Police Investigation

Cllr Tony Sutton, Deputy Leader of the Lib Dems, said "If residents are to have any faith that justice has been done then they need to know that every effort has been made to establish the extent of the abuses and that, where possible, the perpetrators have been brought to justice."

He has now written directly to the Chief Constable saying "I am asking you to investigate this matter, using the information gathered by the Auditor as a starting point."

Audit Commission Factfile

The Audit Commission looked at a number of cases and said allocations and repairs had been done wrongly:

"67 The overall conclusions that we draw from these cases are that:

• there is evidence that allocations of properties were not made in accordance with the points system or the policies of the Council;

• there is evidence that repairs were arranged outside of the repairs system;

• there has been inadequate management review; and

• record keeping was inadequate to support decisions."

Jobs for the boys?

Looking at how some jobs were given out, the Audit Commission looked in detail at four cases. The report says

"112 We reviewed four of the cases in detail. Aspects of all these cases were unsatisfactory." and

113 In each of the cases reviewed the individual was quickly appointed from the temporary role to a permanent job, solely on the basis of the relevant experience provided by the temporary work. In two of these cases they were appointed to the maximum pay point available - we can find no record to support these decisions.

Case 1 - Special request by an Area Housing Manager. The individual was appointed to a temporary post that was made permanent seven months later. Staff said the person turned up out of the blue, they were told to find her work.

Case 2 - First Call's records show this as being a special request from an Area Manager. The Area Manager denies making this request. The person started work in a Scale three post, but despite unsatisfactory probationary reports and a poor sickness record, was quickly appointed to a permanent Scale six post. The person resigned prior to a disciplinary in 2007.

Case 3 - Special request from Housing head office. After four months this person was appointed to a permanent position at the top of the appropriate pay scale. The person resigned prior to a disciplinary 2007.

Case 4 - Special request from Housing Service's Head Office. After five months this person was appointed to a permanent post at the top of the pay scale. No records exist concerning the permanent appointment, but this change was effected on the creation of NCH, when a number of temporary posts were made permanent."