Goodbye large-scale stock transfer, hello small-scale community-based housing associations. If the days of LSVT didn't already seem numbered, they will now with the publication of a report by Birmingham's independent commission (page 9). The commission concentrated on routes for improving the management of the city's 80,000 council homes and bringing them up to the decent homes standard, but its messages will inevitably have wider implications for the sector at large – not least John Prescott and his Communities Plan, due to be delivered in January.

Since Birmingham's ballot in April, stock transfer has been on the back-burner. Indeed, new research confirms the programme is six months behind schedule (page 12). The Birmingham report sends out the message that small is beautiful (contrary to the way most housing associations are heading) and recommends breaking down the stock into bite-sized chunks. Local residents would take charge of their own management and budgets. Setting up this model would provide the savings to get one-third to half of the homes up to the standard, the report says. But the crux still comes in how to raise money for the remaining ones. Setting up arm's-length management organisations, one of the recommendations, seems unlikely even on the four-year scale being talked about. That leaves small-scale transfers and, if this route is to gain more widespread appeal, the big question is whether John Prescott will stump up the dowries to make them workable.

It was once the department that housing chiefs would rather not know too much about. Now double-digit cost hikes in maintenance bills are the issue keeping many awake at night (page 16). What makes the situation such a board-level crisis is that repairs are a key tenet of inspection – rightly so, since they invariably come top of tenants' priorities in surveys.

The message of the Birmingham report is that small is beautiful

Understandably, housing associations are asking the government for extra cash to help them through this crisis. Partnering with contractors, if feasible, is another solution. In the longer term, the answer for social housing providers has to be to consider setting up in-house maintenance teams, either on their own or in a group. These teams could earn their keep by selling their services to other organisations. It goes without saying, though, that direct labour organisations shouldn't come with the baggage and inefficiencies that dogged them in the past.