SENIOR members of Labour-led Harlow Council have issued statements ahead of the publication of what has been described as a “high critical” report on the delivery of council homes in the town.

The whole matter will be discussed at the Cabinet meeting tonight (Thursday).

Both the cabinet member for housing, Mark Wilkinson and cabinet member for growth and prosperity, Tony Durcan will be asking cabinet to enable the report to be received. Within the report there are a number of recommendations that need to be reviewed and evaluated.

Labour leader, cllr Mark Ingall said: “While Harlow’s Labour Council has delivered 49 additional Council Houses in the last two years and has plans for many more to come, we recognise that decent, truly affordable and secure housing is a priority, and so we are always looking at ways of improving delivery and increasing supply.”

Mark Wilkinson the Portfolio Holder for Housing said “Firstly I would thank the Scrutiny Committee for taking on this review for us, this will now enable us to have a open and honest appraisal of current systems. As the Cabinet member responsible I can assure residents we will evaluate the recommendations with our key partners including the tenant forum and provide feed back to scrutiny once this evaluation has been completed.”

Councillor Tony Durcan responsible for Growth and Prosperity commented “What is pleasing is that the report recognises that the Labour council is committed to not only wanting to build council homes but actually are building them. It was noted that 16 council homes are currently under construction with another significant project of 58 homes at Staple Tye now at the tendering stage.

“We currently have a pipe line of other council home  building projects are already activated.

“The Labour administration has a clear commitment to not only build our own  council homes but to purchase when available on the open market”.