Council failing poorest

11.51.47pm GMT Sun 18th Feb 2007

81 families are waiting for new housing when the Council already has the money for new homes.

A recent scrutiny investigation into Nottingham City Council has revealed that money taken from house builders and developers to be spent on affordable housing has never been spent.

Lib Dem councillor Gary Long said "I am very unhappy with this. There are 81 poor families out there who should be in new homes, but are not. Even worse, Council officers also admitted at a meeting that there is not a proper plan to use

this money."

Section 106 money is paid by developers to the Council if they agree with the Council not to meet certain normal planning conditions. One of these conditions is normally that an agreed amount of each housing development should be for 'affordable housing'. The developers can pay the Council who then fund new affordable housing somewhere else in the City.

Lib Dem leader Cllr Gary Long asked for the review because the Lib Dems were worried that the money collected under "Section 106" was not being handed as well as possible.. What we found was Council inaction in an important area. The review found "the current Section 106 funding received but not spent would fund 81 new homes".

Local campaigner Issan Ghazni said, "I am pleased that the Panel is following up this issue. This is money that the Council has for a specific reason, and it is not delivering. We need to make sure that the money is used, as quickly as possible; to help those people it is there to help."