Council spends thousands renting homes it once owned

I'm writing a lot at the moment about the serious problems caused by the over-zealous way the Tories have imposed their right-to-buy policy on Putney, Roehampton and Southfields:

• It's pushed house prices up artificially
• It's deprived local families of much-needed affordable housing
• The huge subsidies involved have lost local taxpayers millions
• It's turned once strong communities into transient buy-to-let conveyor-belts
• It's made anti-social behaviour worse as the transient residents have far less commitment to and interest in the area they are only part of for a few months: more noise, more fly-tipping, more overcrowding.

But let me give you a direct example I've encountered in the past few days that anyone who is a Council Taxpayer in Putney should be outraged about.

Dowdeswell Close is part of the Lennox Council estate off Priory Lane in Roehampton. Wandsworth's Tory Council is now renting a property it used to own there at £1,300 a month. If those being housed in such properties don't have the income to pay this level of rent then the difference is made up in Housing Benefit, which you and I pay for.

All because the Conservative Council have sold off over half the council homes in our borough.

This isn't the only example: right across Wandsworth there are hundreds and hundreds of former council homes now being rented back by the Council for use as temporary accommodation to help them cope with the huge housing crisis the Conservatives have brought on themselves. And this voodoo financing is costing taxpayers an absolute fortune.

The Conservatives pride themselves on financial prudence. They certainly aren't showing it in their incompetent housing policies.