Poole council’s arm’s-length management organisation received a three-star “excellent” rating from the Audit Commission on 23 December.

The rating meant Poole Housing Partnership received £17.4m in ODPM funding to spend on its backlog of repairs, as well as kitchen and bathroom refurbishments and central heating upgrades.

Poole expects to receive a further £17m by 2006. About half of Poole’s 4700 homes currently fall short of the decent homes standard.

Joe Logan, Poole council’s head of housing management services, said: “The residents didn’t want a large-scale voluntary transfer but they have been positive about the impact of the ALMO as they’ve seen an improvement in service delivery.”

Abdool Kara, head of housing (South) at the Audit Commission, said: “Poole [has] worked hard to improve housing management.”

Source

Housing Today