The troubled Ashram Housing Association is to become a subsidiary of Accord Housing Association.
Ashram, which manages almost 400 properties in Birmingham and the West Midlands, has been under Housing Corporation supervision since last November.

Despite making considerable progress, according to supervisors, Ashram has been looking for help from a larger registered social landlord since the start of this year.

West Midlands-based Accord is expected to assist Ashram on key short-term objectives such as governance, financial management and service delivery from September.

Accord chief executive Chris Handy said: "The injection of support from Accord will enable Ashram to continue to provide culturally sensitive services to its residents."

Ashram started talks with the Housing Corporation last year following a funding dispute with Ashram International, a charity for homeless people on the Indian subcontinent (HT 20 September 2001, page 3).

The news of Ashram's merger with a mainstream housing association comes as the National Housing Federation sets long-term targets for an increase in the number of minority ethnic chief executives in the sector. Currently only two of the largest 200 housing associations have a black or minority ethnic chief executive. The federation said that figure should rise to 11 by 2005 and to 19 by 2012.

Barrington Billings, chair of the Chartered Institute of Housing's BME working group, said: "The target is ambitious but achievable, if RSLs are willing to market themselves to attract BME applicants. It will be impossible to meet, however, if they continue with their present approach."

Source

Housing Today