From the Belfry

The Communities and Local Government Enforcement Secretary, Ruth Kelly, has used her speech at ConfLab 2006 to urge delegates against listening to council tenants. "We are listening," she said.

The Government has already conceded that "its aim to ensure all social housing met the so-called decent home standard by 2010 had slipped", which may possibly be another way of saying that the target has been moved. "By 2010 over 3.5 milion homes will have been refurbished," Ruth Kelly said.

Ballots of tenants have shown that they prefer to keep their homes under local authority control, so councils are being made to transfer their stock to housing associations or "arms-length management organisations" before they can afford to make repairs. Ruth Kelly has plans for "giving council and housing association tenants a bigger say in the management of homes".

The issue has placed the Blair cabal at odds with the remains of the Labour party since the year we began a certain costly venture in Iraq. "We have to make sure we are responsible with the public finances," Ruth Kelly said.