How many houses does Norwich City Council own?

12.05.54pm UTC (GMT +0000) Thu 21st Feb 2008

Labour financial woe

How many Council Houses does Norwich City Council own? This seemingly straightforward question continues to baffle the Labour administration at City Hall. Over two weeks ago the Audit Commission revealed that the council had overstated the number of council houses by 160 yet undervalued the worth of the housing stock by £17.2million.

Despite this extraordinary revelation, the council has STILL not publicly stated the correct figures. It has left the opposition Liberal Democrat Party wondering what exactly is going on at City Hall.

The Lib Dems will ask the Labour administration to clarify the situation at a full council meeting next week. The Lib Dems hope that Labour has worked out the figures and that the figures are correct (this time).

Commenting on the issue Eaton Ward City Councillor Judith Lubbock said "It is astonishing that as simple as this question is the council cannot give a correct answer. If they can't count the number of council houses correctly what else can't they get right?"

The Audit Commission also rated Norwich City Council as one of the four worst councils in the country for using resources and slammed many of its financial management procedures for 2006/07.

The following question will be asked by Judith Lubbock at the next full council meeting on 26th February at 7:30pm at City Hall:

"The recent Audit Commission report found that this council had overstated the number of council houses by 160 - yet undervalued the housing stock by £17.2m. Can this administration now give us the correct figures?"