Proper consultation? No chance!

To those who know about Craven district council and its parlous financial state, it will come as no surprise that they are desperate to build some 366 houses on land that they, or rather we, own. They're desperate for cash, with virtually every penny coming in going to the vastly increased staff numbers that they have, and a pensions deficit standing at around 6 times the annual payment made by council tax payers, and rapidly rising.

But there's another reason.

As has been pointed out by an astute reader, Craven 's housing policy is appalling.
After virtually giving away 1,540 houses to newly formed Craven housing at the knock down price of just over £5,000 each around 4 years ago, they've managed to spend the £8 Million given for those houses, with apparently nothing to show for it.
Except many more staff.

Every few years the Audit commission does an audit of how well councils perform, and one of those performance indicators is housing.
So how is Craven performing?
The Audit commission is usually fairly non-committal in its statements, the most damning usually being of the order of 'There is room for improvement,' or 'The council recognise that there are some slight failings, and are addressing those needs,' but in the case of Craven it has not been so lenient.

On the question of how well CDC understand its housing market and developed the right proposals, the Audit commission states:
'There is a high risk of failure and poor outcomes.'
Grade - High need for improvement

On the question of how well the council monitors its progress and how effectively this feeds into future plans, the Audit commission states:
'There is a high risk of failure and poor outcomes.'
Grade - High need for improvement

So we see another reason for CDC's headlong rush into building 366 houses without, yet again, any form of proper consultation. They need to have some affordable houses, after all, the 20 per annum that Craven housing promised to build have resulted, after almost 5 years, in not the 100 we thought we'd have, but around a dozen.

Craven housing has rebranded itself as a charity, thereby escaping the Freedom of Information laws, and it has made it very plain that it will not be answering any calls for information - Wonder why?