A row between the Labour and Conservative parties in Ealing has broken out after thousands of council homes in the borough fell short of government standards.
Figures from the Department for Local Government and Communities (DLGC) showed 3,707 homes under Ealing Council were classed as "non-decent" in April 2016 .
Ealing Council said the homes relate to eight estates currently undergoing regeneration, but insist none of them failed to meet safety standards.
Homes are considered "non-decent" if they fail to meet any of the four criteria in safety, heat comfort, state of repair and had reasonably modern facilities and services.
Tory Cllr Ian Proud, shadow cabinet member for housing, accused the council of taking too long to regenerate the flats.
Cllr Proud said: "I'm duly surprised because the last Tory Conservative administration did a survey on these houses between 2006 and 2010 and we got the wheels turning on regeneration.
"Why they have taken six years to get a third of the housing up to a decent standard we don't know.
"It is awfully slow. They (the council) seem to be not really listening to what people actually want.
"This is something which is no surprise to us, they have been very slow off the mark, the council is not listening. People complain about this."
According to DLGC figures, the number of "non-decent dwellings" owned by the council has taken a huge hike since 2013, although it has not yet been possible to see how many non-decent homes were in the borough before 2013.
| Date | Non-decent dwellings as of April 1 |
| 2013 | 350 |
| 2014 | 1,151 |
| 2015 | 780 |
| 2016 | 3,707 |
Ealing Council hit back at Cllr Proud, accusing his party in central government, the Conservatives, of contributing to the housing crisis in the borough through a lack of funding.
Labour Cllr Jasbir Anand, cabinet member for housing, said: "The Conservative Party is totally disconnected from what Ealing residents are asking for.
"It was the Tories who forced the bedroom tax on residents and are requiring councils to sell off their highest value properties, further reducing the supply of affordable housing and exacerbating London’s housing crisis.
"The Labour Party are invested in regenerating the eight estates to which the government’s figures refer, meaning all our properties will be brought well above decent homes standards.
"We have worked with residents groups to ensure that regeneration of our estates happens in an orderly and timely fashion.
"If Cllr Proud wants the Council to refurbish properties that we will be entirely rebuilding in a year's time, he’ll need to explain to residents how and why he’d waste taxpayer’s money on doing the work twice."
The council said the data as of April 1, 2016, relates to properties on eight estates which are undergoing regeneration programmes.
The estates are Allen Court, Copley Close, Golf Links Estate, Green Man Lane, Havelock Estate, Rectory Park Estate, Sherwood Close Estate and South Acton Estate, the council said.
But it is not yet clear how many homes, and from which estates, have been made "decent" since April 2016.
Keep up to date with the latest news in west London via the free getwestlondon app.
You can even set it to receive push notifications for all the breaking news in your area.
Available to download from the App Store or Google Play for Android now!
