Housing association axes 'non-core' services

Shoreline Housing Partnership estimates it needs to save £4m a year to cope with the annual 1% cut to rents announced by George Osborne in July. This is the equivalent to 19% of the £20.5m operating costs reported by the association in 2013/14.

The 8,000-home landlord, which had previously announced it expected to cut jobs, has today published more detail of services it will cut.

It will abolish its dedicated employment and skills service and end apprenticeships, work placements and internships.

It will move away from having specialist crime prevention, tenancy support, area development and older person’s teams and move towards generic housing officer roles in smaller neighbourhood patches. The association will also reduce its garden assistance scheme and no longer provide funding for Leeds City Credit Union and Grimsby Citizens Advice Bureau.

A total of 36 full-time equivalent posts will be axed, with the organisation initially seeking voluntary redundancies.

Shoreline is one of a number of social landlords to announce cost-cutting measures following the rent cut announcement (see box). An Inside Housing survey of housing association chief executives in October showed 72% think it likely their organisation will cut back on ‘non-core’ activity – defined as activity not relating to housing management or construction.

Shoreline in May also had its financial viability rating downgraded by the Homes and Communities Agency due to a number of financial exposures, including having a large stock improvement programme and a project to demolish several tower blocks consisting of 640 homes. Shoreline’s ‘V2’ rating means it complies with standards but needs to manage exposure to risk. A spokesperson at the time said Shoreline had a plan to cope with the exposures.

SOCIAL LANDLORD CUT ANNOUNCEMENTS TO DATE