“A score of 2 reflects poor political leadership, Labour Executive Councillors are not driving the Council to achieve higher standards.”

– Liberal Democrat Qurban Hussain.

The latest Audit Commission report on Luton Council’s performance shows the authority meeting only the minimum requirements and performing adequately. The Council scored two out of four on all the five areas on which it was judged and was awarded a red flag for housing indicating there were significant concerns, action is needed.

The report says the Council takes too long to deal with Housing Benefit claims putting some families in danger of losing their homes; too many phone calls to the Town Hall never get answered and at 36 days the time taken to re-let vacant Council houses is getting longer not shorter.

“A score of 2 reflects poor political leadership, Labour Executive Councillors are not driving the Council to achieve higher standards,” said Liberal Democrat Qurban Hussain. “It’s difficult to see how the Council’s performance can improve when Labour Executive members do not seem to have a grasp of what is going on.”

“We had a very good example of how well the Labour Executive members understand what they are supposed to be doing at the last Full Council meeting on 1st December. The Labour leadership asked Council to approve a new policy for licensing gambling and under questioning from opposition Liberal Democrats revealed they had not themselves read the document and did not understand what it said. They were forced by their own embarrassment to withdraw a large part of it.”

“If we are to see any real improvement in delivery of services to vulnerable Luton residents then there will need to be commitment and leadership from the Labour administration. I see no signs of it.”