CPO debt crisis - Letter Printed in daily Post
 
AT THE Housing Committee on October 31, I tabled a motion quoting research by the Joseph Rowntree Trust that showed across pathfinder schemes that there was an average gap of £35,000 between the cost of buying new, in effect replacement homes, than the compensation being offered.
 
The response by officers gives an interesting postcode analysis of where people moved from for some 180-plus families. But it does not address the critical question by comparing purchase prices and the compensation given.
 
How dare I expect officers to act with integrity and answer the questions asked of them?
 
No doubt they will claim financial confidentiality, but analysis of prices did not need to be given by name or address, a case number could have been allocated.
 
The fact that housing officers want to cover up the debt crisis imposed on families after they are forced from their homes by both deliberate dereliction and CPO should worry every councillor, and even more so the thousands of families threatened by the pending roll-out of more demolition/CPO areas.
 
Cllr Steve Radford,Liberal Party Group Leader