Leeds federated

Barbara Houghton can’t remember1933, the first time she saw her home in north Liverpool. One of her earliest memories, though, is leaving the house when she was evacuated to a village in mid-Wales to escape German bombing in 1942. “It was a huge adventure,” she says.

Barring evacuation and 10 years when she lived with her husband in Woolton, south Liverpool, Houghton has lived in the same house all her life.

In the 1930s, the rent was 18 shillings (90p) a week; by 1975, when Liverpool Housing Trust took over the management, it was £3 and now, it’s £51.50p.

LHT took over its management in 1975, but, says Houghton, the identity of her landlord has never mattered much – her home has always felt like home.

“Unless I have to report a repair I don’t see much of the housing officers,” she says.

“I trust LHT and I’ve no qualms about not actually owning this place. I’m confident that if there’s a problem, someone will help.”

The trust converted her living room and dining room into one open space 15 years ago as part of a major improvement programme, and installed central heating and new windows. Less welcome, though, was the trust’s decision to change her kitchen.

“I didn’t want it and was happy with the one I had, but there wasn’t much I could do, so I gave the old one to my daughter rather than let it be sent to the rubbish tip. I still think the old one was better.”

These days, of course, the trust puts much more emphasis on tenant consultation. And now, sitting comfortably in her front room with Zoe the cat on her knees, Houghton’s just happy to be in the home she’s known for so long, watching the world go by from her easy chair.

Lillian Hodd, LFHA tenant since 1975

Lillian Hodd became a tenant of Leeds Federated Housing Association in 1975, the year it formed, and still lives in the same third-storey flat in the Pepper Hills complex, south of Leeds city centre.

“Back then, we had a flat roof and it leaked very badly,” she says. “I remember my mother putting out buckets to catch all the drips. It was terrible, but it was cheap – we paid about £5 a week.”

Hodd and her mother had moved into Pepper Hills in 1955 and for 20 years their small-time private landlord had done little in the way of maintenance.

“It got pretty cold. There was no central heating and we had coal fires. But the main problem was damp, which made the concrete crumble in places.”

When LFHA’s first member of staff, housing officer Gerry Verbrugge, paid Hodd a visit in 1975 to explain that there had been a change in management, Hodd didn’t imagine things would change much.

But she was wrong. The new Housing Act had brought in grant for housing associations and then-chair Father Healey and director Jim Coulter – the latter now chief executive of the National Housing Federation – were already discussing how LFHA could use this money to improve the city’s housing.

LFHA had been formed in 1975 from a coalition of housing organisations and charities and started with fewer than 200 homes. A programme of buying pre-1919 homes and building estates in West Yorkshire meant that by the late 1970s it had 300; it now owns 4000.

Management always used to come from activists at the bottom. Those days are long gone steve garnett

Steve Garnett

By 1980 it was in a position to start making big improvements to its stock.

Hodd felt the benefit when her old flat roof was rebuilt and pitched. The walkways round the blocks were strengthened, as was the buildings’ structure.

Hodd says there have been many changes over the past 10 years. “When I first came there weren’t any cars around; now people have a job to find parking space.

“And for years there was no tenants’ association. But when one was set up six years ago, I joined by accident, really. I went with a friend and they all said: ‘Come on Miss Hodd, join up!’

“So I did, and it’s quite nice to hear about what people need. I get talking to all different sorts.”

Steve Garnett, Residential caretaker

Steve Garnett joined LFHA in 1986 as residential caretaker for the association’s Marlborough Blandford estate in central Leeds. He’s now the longest-serving member of LFHA’s 120-strong team.

Garnett says he is quite happy to have been working on the same estate for the past 18 years. “I like to get stuck into something once I’ve decided I like it, and, in any case, there’s been so much change around me things never get dull,” he says.

When he first started looking after the six terraced streets that make up the Marlborough estate, some of the houses were in a terrible condition. LFHA had only just taken over management of the area. “Some of the houses were burned out and there were lots of smack users in the area,” he recalls.

“Another problem was that rooms were leased individually so if, for example, one person was left in a house and others didn’t want to share with them, we’d soon have an almost empty property.

“It can be challenging: I had a strange moment a few years ago when a tenant with mental health difficulties called on me at midnight armed with a bow and arrow. He said someone was after him, so I called the police for him.

The estate became easier to manage in the early 1990s when the association started to let whole homes and exploit its location opposite part of Leeds University. Gradually all the buildings were rehabilitated and let to students.

“They’re on short-term tenancies so we see new faces all the time, but we don’t see any of the drugs problems we once had. There’s a real multicultural community and I get great satisfaction from helping the students get settled.”

He has noticed a big increase in tenant consultation over his 28 years with LFHA. “It has made things more transparent, tenants now have a better understanding of, for example, service charges than they had 18 years ago.”

Now 53, Garnett has every intention of staying with the association for many more years. “Leeds is going to continue to grow and all associations are going to get larger, like corporations. It means there could be more flexibility for tenants but I do think there will be more management from the top.

It always used to come from activists at the bottom. Those days are long gone.”