Two stock transfers in the north-west of England, totalling more than 21,000 homes, are set to raise more than £250m for repairs and modernisation programmes.
Yet an inquiry into the future of council housing in a West Midlands council has ruled out stock transfer.

This week 6800 council homes in Vale Royal in Cheshire and 14,600 homes in St Helens, Merseyside, officially passed to new landlords Weaver Vale Housing Trust and Helena Housing, respectively.

Weaver Vale will pay £52.2m for its stock and undertake a £67m repairs and improvement programme. St Helens Council will receive £27.7m for its stock from Helena Housing, which has pledged to invest £200m in the homes over seven years.

In the West Midlands, an inquiry urged Sandwell council to maintain control over its 37,000 homes.

Transfer to a new social landlord was discounted on the grounds that there was insufficient local support from tenants. Instead, the inquiry proposed that management of the properties be transferred to an arm’s-length management organisation.

By doing this, the council could attract as much as £220m in government support, which would help in bringing homes up to a decent standard by 2010.

The inquiry estimated that Sandwell’s housing needed £880m in investment during the next 30 years to complete a programme of wholesale refurbishment and environmental improvements.

It warned that this would be impossible should the homes remain under the council’s direct control.

Source

Housing Today