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1.7.2000 - 30.6.2001
Issue 320 24 january 2002
RSL to
sell off assets to clear debt millions •
Nine out of ten London homes in need of repair •
Quango acts as HA chief is fired •
Salford swap solution • Blunkett
to give more landlords ASBO power •
Atkinson in new transfer talks
Birmingham city council has secured the services of Big Ron Atkinson to explain to the city’s 88,000 tenants how the council wants to change the way its housing is managed. In a video sent to every household, Ron, who grew up in a Birmingham council house before signing with Oxford United at 18, interviews the city’s member for housing, Cllr Dennis Minnis, tenant representatives and housing officers about the consequences of the proposed transfer to a network of new “community landlords”. At a cost of £130,000 the video has been described by anti stock transfer campaigners as a “waste of money”, but Birmingham said that, at £1.55 per tenant, the exercise was good value. No stranger to changes in management himself, Big Ron’s unique mastery of the English language will also be translated into Urdu, Bengali and Arabic.
RSL to sell off assets to clear debt millions
An inquest into the failure of a substantial London housing association is raising major questions about regulation and management in the industry.
Camden council’s scrutiny committee is currently investigating the collapse of West Hampstead housing association (WHHA), whose 2,700 properties came under the management of Paddington Churches housing association (PCHA), part of the massive Genesis housing group, last year. At the time of Genesis’ intervention WHHA had declared debts of some £3m, although this figure subsequently proved to be an underestimation. After hearing that Genesis intended to recoup some of the association’s debts through the sale of properties, chair of WHHA Tenants Association Peter Rutherford this week said many tenants were now concerned they could become homeless.
Despite the failure of the regulator to spot the impending problems at WHHA, the Housing Corporation has ruled out a statutory inquiry into the collapse. However, the corporation has announced that it has commissioned a review of its officers’ actions and judgements related to WHHA’s regulation.
Camden’s scrutiny committee was this week presented with a report from tenant representatives that said that a mix of “poor management, untruthfulness and secrecy” had led to the meltdown.
The report said Camden should have noticed a number of indicators, showing that all was not well and called for improvements in policies and procedures to ensure that the council works more effectively with housing association partners in the future.
A spokesperson for Camden council said: “Camden council was never responsible for the management of WHHA. Whether we could have seen the warning signs earlier is something the scrutiny panel is looking into now.”
But Rutherford said that the overall responsibility for the association’s meltdown lay with the Housing Corporation. “They just didn’t notice what was happening”, he said.
The Genesis housing group said that the apparent £3m debt at the time that they became managing agents for WHHA’s properties underestimated the depth of the hole the association was in. A spokesperson said: “There were other liabilities that existed then but which had not been paid out or quantified at that time. Some of these have now been paid, which has increased the overdraft and some still remain in our forecast of future payments.”
Genesis confirmed that it would now be disposing of some stock in order to cover the association’s outstanding debts but said that no existing tenants would be made homeless as a result. A spokesperson said: “Only properties that become void in the normal course of events will be considered for sale. No tenants will be evicted or decanted in connection with, or as a consequence of, these sales. At present the bulk of WHHA’s debts will be recouped via the sale of non-residential properties, plus a limited number of residential properties.”
The Housing Corporation’s director of regulation for London, Derek King, this week told Camden’s scrutiny committee that the quango’s re-vamped regulatory regime would be better equipped to spot problems such as those faced by WHHA “much earlier”. •
In the printed issue
•
Capital’s repairs crisis p2 •
HA chief fired p3 •
Salford solution p4 •
ASBO extension plans p5
•
Comment p6 •
Letters & Best practice p7 •
Feature - Bringing age to the table p8 •
Feature - Partnership in action p10 •
Workplace p12 •
Recruitment and advertising p13-16
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News
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Benefit of experience
Published this week, the latest edition of Chris Smith’s guide to Housing
Benefit for Housing Managers (right) is dedicated to “those councils
who have not signed up to the government’s appalling verification framework
- despite bribes to do so and threats about what might happen if they did
not”. So, if you are one of the 46% of councils that haven’t yet
signed up, consider yourself dedicated. The 2002 edition includes an expanded
section on overpayments and advice on how to tell the difference between “rents”
and “service charges”. Copies, priced £17.95 (plus £2.50
p&p) can be ordered at www.hbhelp.co.uk
Green Monday
The Council for the Protection of Rural England (CPRE) will publish a new
report: Even regions, greener growth, on Monday. The CPRE report will focus
on the continuing disparities in economic performance between, and within,
the English Regions.
New chair at IDS
Former Rothschild Bank MD Bernard Myers (right) has been elected as chair
of the London-based housing association IDS, it was announced this week. Myers
has served on the board since 1997 and replaces Tony Hitman as chair. In addition
to his role at IDS, Myers is also assistant governor of the Hebrew University
of Jerusalem, chair of the Wingate Youth Trust and chair of the Harrow Citizens
Advice Bureau.
Possession of the facts
Social landlords obtained a record 30,350 immediate possession orders in 2001,
according to figures released by the Lord Chancellor’s Department. The
figure is more than 3,000 up on the year before. Homeless charity Shelter,
which has sought to draw attention to social landlords’ increasing reliance
on outright possession orders, said it was “concerned at the continuing
trend”.
Job of the week
A two year contract is available for two ‘borough co-ordinators’
to work in south west London on a salary of £24,514 per annum. Working
on a new initiative funded by the SRB, you will aim to reduce offenders’
dependency and increase their employability. A key feature of the bid is the
involvement of volunteer mentors to work on a one-to-one basis with individual
offenders. Further information can be found on our jobs
page. This is just one of 54 housing jobs in Property People this week.
Nine out of ten London homes in need of repair
Nearly one in two of London’s half million council homes currently fails the government’s decent homes standard and 95% of stock requires some repair work, according to the latest research from the London Housing Unit (LHU).
The LHU briefing document: Housing Investment by London Boroughs 2000-02 estimates the cost of clearing the capital’s backlog of repairs to be £5.6bn - a sum representing 29% of the national £19bn investment backlog identified by the Department of Transport, Local Government and the Regions (DTLR) in 2000.
The LHU research finds that, while around half of the homes need an investment of less than £5,000 to bring them up to scratch, one in five council homes in the capital need at least £15,000 spent on them.
The LHU also finds that 8% of London’s 2.3 million private sector homes are “unfit for human habitation” and estimates the cost of making them habitable at £1bn. Copies of the briefing can be viewed at www.lhu.org.uk •
Quango acts as HA chief is fired
The Housing Corporation this week made four statutory appointments to the board of Kingston YMCA following the dismissal of the association’s chief executive, James Lynn, after an internal investigation identified “financial irregularities” at the association.
Lynn, who had worked for the Kingston YMCA for 18 years, was due to retire this month but was dismissed after internal control checks raised questions over the landlord’s finances. Mike Fleming, director of housing for parent body YMCA England, said that investigations were continuing and that it was not possible at this stage to give further details of the irregularities so far uncovered. As to how long the “irregularities” may have been taking place, Fleming said: “A while”.
Announcing the statutory appointments to Kingston’s board this week the Housing Corporation said that it had now placed the landlord under supervision “because of a need for a comprehensive review of its governance, management, financial controls and viability.”
Fleming was keen to stress that the immediate future of the RSL’s young residents was not under threat. “YMCA England will continue to support Kingston YMCA through this difficult period. We have formed a small team to assist Kingston YMCA, a step that the Housing Corporation supports. It is important to stress that operations at Kingston YMCA have not been affected and that Kingston YMCA continues to provide accommodation and housing support for 180 young people”, he said.
Chair of Kingston YMCA John Tidy said: “The board took prompt action when these irregularities came to light. A new chief executive has been appointed. He is already assisting us in working closely with the Housing Corporation. We welcome the support and intervention of the Housing Corporation at this difficult time.” Former YMCA England regional director Ian Green has been appointed as the new chief executive at Kingston YMCA.
The statutory appointments to Kingston’s board are: Jane Bloodworth, internal audit Hanover HA; Paul Doe, chief executive Shepherds Bush HA; Martyn Kingsford, chair Richmond-upon-Thames Churches HT, Laura Price, assistant director of finance, Horizon Housing Group. The appointments are for an initial period of six months. •
Salford swap solution
People living in houses that are virtually worthless, are being given a way out through an innovative new scheme being piloted by Salford City council.
Under the council’s Home Swap scheme, which has been given the go-ahead by the Secretary of State, families in run-down Victorian terraced homes due for demolition, will be offered newly-refurbished homes of the same size nearby and will simply take their existing mortgage with them.
In the early 1990s homes in these areas reached up to £30,000, but prices have now slumped to just £8-9,000 - with some properties changing hands for as little as £3,000. Many families are living in negative equity and elderly residents who have lived in their homes for generations would have no chance of being able to buy another home with the money they received from a compulsory purchase order.
The new scheme means that people with mortgages can move to their new homes, without paying any more on their monthly repayments.
Council spokesperson Chris Southern, said: “This really is a wonderful way of regenerating a run-down area and helping people out of the negative equity trap. Several families are already looking at new homes. We are offering them like for like and they will be able to choose their own decoration schemes.”
She said two families had already decided on their new homes and would be moving soon. One was delighted to be going to the street where their best friends live. An elderly couple with a disabled son who have owned their home for years are also in the process of choosing a new house. •
Blunkett to give more landlords ASBO power
Registered social landlords (RSLs) are to be allowed to apply for Anti Social Behaviour Orders (ASBOs) under plans to “update and slim down” the procedures for tackling “neighbours from hell”, announced by Home Secretary David Blunkett this week.
Speaking to a meeting of all 43 chief constables in England and Wales on Monday, Blunkett said that the government was determined to make ASBOs quicker and easier to use in the battle against anti social activities. Introduced by then Home Secretary Jack Straw in 1999 the government had high hopes for ASBOs, but their use has remained limited with a total of 466 orders granted to date.
Proposals to change the ASBO regime are included in the Police Reform Bill. They include: Introducing an “interim” ASBO, to be awarded at first hearing; enabling ASBOs to “travel” with offenders who move areas; extending the scope of orders by allowing RSLs and the British Transport Police to apply for orders and allowing county courts to grant orders.
Blunkett told police chiefs: “Tackling anti-social behaviour on housing estates and on the streets of the most difficult areas is key to addressing the fear of crime and reinforcing the task of communities to build securer and safer neighbourhoods. We need to think creatively and intelligently about the challenge ahead and how best to meet it.” The Police Reform Bill and explanatory notes can be found at: www.parliament.uk •
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