Councillors clashed in a row over selling empty homes after accusations of making excuses over ageing properties.
Members of Dudley’s Housing and Assets Scrutiny Committee were debating a report on how the authority disposes of empty homes which it says are too expensive to repair.
At the committee’s March meeting a veteran Conservative councillor looked into the past to express his concern about selling void homes.
Cllr David Stanley said: “I have sat in this room for a good many years and it is only in recent times we have come along disposing of stock we always managed to retain in the past.
“What has gone wrong? It does concern me, we keep getting the same old excuses because of the ageing of the housing stock.
“It falls on us as landlords, it is our responsibility to ensure our tenants keep to the conditions of their tenancy.”
The former mayor went on to ask what the council was doing to make sure residents looked after their council homes and whether the council was carrying out repairs once they were reported.
The council owns 21,000 homes and 74 percent were built before 1966, under the current disposal policy 195 homes have been sold.
Cllr Stanley’s comments prompted a robust answer from Dudley Conservative cabinet member for housing, Cllr Ian Bevan.
Cllr Bevan said: “Cllr Stanley, you have accused us of providing excuses, I can assure you we are not in the business of providing excuses. I would ask that comment is taken back, it is not helpful.”
Cllr Bevan then turned his fire on another fellow Tory and committee chairperson, Cllr Adam Davies, over his analogy that in a street of properties all the same age, if one was beyond repair, the council cannot blame the age of the building for its condition.
Cllr Bevan told Cllr Davies: “I don’t know what you are talking about.”
Cllr Davies said he was not going to ask Cllr Stanley to withdraw the comment and told the cabinet member his analogy was ‘simple’.
Cllr Bevan replied: “Your analogy is very simple and it does not reflect anything that goes on within a property.
“I’m disappointed this committee is repeatedly calling into question staff integrity, the sooner we realise these are business decisions on a property portfolio the better.
“There is a strategy and a plan in place, explanations have been provided time and time again.”
The report, signed by Kathryn Jones, Dudley group director for housing and assets, said: “A total of £13.86 million has been received from the sale of these properties, which is being used to partially fund the capital programme over the next five years.
“The loss of rental income has been minimal, as the majority of the properties were void at the point of sale and therefore were not generating any rent.”
The council’s housing budget is ring-fenced so rent and service charges must be spent within the Housing Revenue Account.
Cash from sales can only be spent on buying or building new homes.
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