Cheap homes for staff report out

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Laura McGillivray said she was "embarrassed that the council has made a mistake"

An inquiry into why council staff were moved into low-rent homes after the eviction of elderly residents has found proper procedures were not followed.

Tenants from Greyhound Opening in Norwich, which has been earmarked for demolition, were moved out of their homes between July 2007 and July 2008.

Staff from Norwich City Council then moved into the sheltered accommodation.

The council report says safeguards covering conflicts of interest were in place but were not followed.

Officers behind the report said it would not prejudice any future disciplinary procedures.

It says the head of neighbourhood and strategic housing services, Kristine Reeves, remains suspended on full pay.

Council staff had been given notice to vacate the properties by 31 January 2009 ahead of demolition.

I am as concerned as anyone about what happened here and lessons need to be learned from this experience Laura McGillivray, Norwich City Council chief executive

Ms Reeves recommended the closure in a report to the city council executive in March 2007 at a meeting chaired by council leader Steve Morphew.

There was no mention of who was going to live in the vacated bungalows while they awaited demolition.

The report found that the decommissioning of the hard-to-let scheme at Greyhound Opening/Goldsmith Street, off Dereham Road, and the resettlement of the elderly tenants was well managed and properly resourced.

But officials in one part of the housing service subsequently took a decision which was not authorised by the executive to deviate from the council's policy of providing temporary accommodation for senior staff relocating to the city.

Instead officers offered vacant properties on a first-come-first-served basis to all members of staff and "no process of selection or subsequent monitoring of the tenancies was put in place".

'Deeply disappointed'

The inquiry also found that neither the chief executive nor senior elected members were made aware of this change in policy.

Laura McGillivray , Norwich City Council chief executive, said: "I am as concerned as anyone about what happened here and lessons need to be learned from this experience.

"This council does a lot of excellent work and we have hard-working staff who really care about this city and the people in it.

"We have worked very hard recently to improve the way we do things and the way in which the people see us, and I am deeply disappointed that in this instance proper processes were not followed."

The council said that assistant director of neighbourhood development Angela Hadley had resigned due to severe ill health in her family, but stressed this was not connected to the inquiry.

Suzanne McBridge, the co-strategic director for community and neighbourhoods with responsibility for this service at that time, has since left the authority, the council said.