| Councillor Kevin Keenan has blamed the opposition SNP group and what he calls “their outlandish requests” in terms of the membership of the group.
That has been rejected by SNP group leader Ken Guild, who accused the administration of trying to “kick this into the long grass”.
Mr Keenan announced the setting up of a cross-party working group following a row between the administration and the SNP over the state of council housing in Dundee.
SNP housing spokesman Jimmy Black had claimed that the city was in the grip of a housing crisis, but that was denied by housing convener George Regan.
In a statement issued today, Mr Keenan said the prospect of a cross-party working group on council house lettings was looking increasingly unlikely.
“I am disappointed that my genuine offer, made in good faith, to bring together all elected members, housing associations and the Dundee Federation of Tenants’ Associations has not met with a serious response,” he said.
“The SNP group on the council have made it impossible to create a viable and appropriate vehicle to look at lettings in the city by their outlandish behaviour.
“They wanted to widen the membership of the group so much as to make it unworkable. Their suggestion that anyone with a view on housing should be involved, whether or not they were a Dundee City Council tenant, is just not practical.
“My serious attempt to find a consensus approach to what has been turned into an issue for our 14,000 tenants, and those on the waiting list, has been thrown back in my face.”
Responding to the statement, Mr Guild said, “We have made no outlandish requests whatsoever.”
He said the original suggestion by the administration was to have all 29 councillors meet as a working group and to be addressed by housing director Elaine Zwirlein and the director of a housing association.
Mr Guild said the SNP would have participated in that, although it sounded to him more like an audience than a working group.
“We wanted that meeting to be the precursor to follow-up workshops involving councillors, registered social landlords, housing associations and housing charities like Shelter,” he said. “I see nothing outlandish about that.”
Mr Keenan said that, if there was to be a solution to the waiting list issue in Dundee, and across Scotland, it must involve a major new house building programme and the co-operation of the public and private sectors as well as councils.
Mr Keenan said the council was currently investing more than £200 million in the housing stock. |
