Consultant Ernst & Young, which is working for Southwark council, has floated a proposal that would see the creation of a "regeneration trust" for the estate, the largest in Europe. It submitted the idea to residents last week.
Under the dual approach proposed, a tenant-majority subsidiary of a large registered social landlord would be set up. The RSL would be based on the "community gateway" model, which would allow it to get around Housing Corporation restrictions on the number of tenants that can sit on its management board.
The RSL subsidiary would take over all the vacant flats, accumulated over a period of months. Selected decanting could also be used to give the RSL a single block to manage.
The transfer would also include plots of land on the estate's periphery, on which the RSL, working with a housebuilder, could build social housing and homes for private sale. Capital receipts from these sales could help cover the transfer price.
An arm's-length management organisation would be set up to run the remaining council stock, although the day-to-day management of the properties would be contracted out to the subsidiary RSL.
Ernst & Young's approach appears to be a compromise that could help win round tenants who previously voted overwhelmingly to reject stock transfer in December 2001. A "yes" vote would have seen as much as £375m spent on regenerating the 2700-home estate.
No local authority has applied for a partial ALMO before, although the government is understood to have looked at allowing councils to mix ALMOs and partial transfers in the past (HT 8 August 2002, page 7).
Ernst & Young said its plans would allow "council-owned properties on the Aylesbury estate [to be] brought up to a decent standard whilst retaining ownership of the stock (other than that sold to the RSL) and maintaining rent for existing tenants at local authority levels."
The consultant's report urged tenants and the council to act fast: "Missing the round-four ALMO applications deadline [26 September] would delay access to much-needed resources for the estate," it said.
The report estimates that at least £124.7m would be required to ensure all homes on the estate meet the decent homes target.
Although New Deal for Communities funding of £32m and a further £7m of council money has been earmarked for the estate, the consultants ruled out single-option solutions such as PFI and ALMO alone because of the size of the funding gap.
The proposals have been discussed by tenants sitting on a "citizens jury".
Source
Housing Today
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