You are viewing 1 of your 1 free articles
East London council to close its housing management arm
Tower Hamlets Council is set to bring its housing management arm back under its direct control.
Following cabinet approval last week, the council’s contract with Tower Hamlets Homes (THH), its arm’s-length management organisation (ALMO), will come to an end on 31 March 2024 and direct control of housing management services will be transferred back to the local authority.
THH, which was set up in 2008, is wholly owned by the council and manages around 21,000 homes on its behalf.
Ahead of the end of the current contract, the council conducted a strategic review and consulted residents about options for housing management.
A significant majority of residents who responded to the consultation – 86.2% – backed the council’s proposals to bring housing back under its direct control.
READ MORE
According to the document that went before cabinet, Tower Hamlets believes the move “will provide an opportunity to join up services, increase accountability to residents and the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH), and enable the council to take a strategic approach to delivering good-quality homes”.
The report also states that, as there is no more Decent Homes funding available, the council “did not find a significant reason to justify sustaining an ALMO model”.
The government offered councils Decent Homes Standard funding to set up ALMOs in the 2000s. However, that funding is no longer available and many have since closed.
In the past year, several councils, including Lewisham, Nottingham and Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole (BCP), have decided to wind up their ALMOs in favour of direct management.
More recently, local authorities, including Tower Hamlets, have cited financial pressures as reasons for closing ALMOs.
Tower Hamlets Council said: “THH currently manages its own budgets. By bringing the services back in-house, the council will gain greater control over how these budgets are spent.
“It is also expected that there will be budget savings in both the [Housing Revenue Account] and general fund resulting from in-sourcing THH, and these savings will need to be costed should a decision to in-source be taken.”
A one-off budget growth of £261,000 has been approved by the council to facilitate the plans, £72,000 in 2022-23 and £189,000 for 2023-24.
Lutfur Rahman, the mayor of Tower Hamlets, said: “This decision marks an important step forward in the way we deliver housing management services.
“Housing is one of our top priorities and I am pleased that we are putting it at the forefront of the council.
“I am committed to ensuring that council tenants and leaseholders get the best service possible, and we can do that much more effectively under one roof.”
He said the council and THH will continue working together closely to “ensure a seamless transition for tenants and leaseholders”.
“We will be communicating with them, as well as our staff and other partners, every step of the way,” Mr Rahman said.
Sign up for our Council Focus newsletter
Already have an account? Click here to manage your newsletters