We all know that there is a need, at least in the more challenging metropolitan contexts, to find different ways of "doing" stock transfers. If it were easy it would have been done a long time ago; but there is pressure from all quarters to rack brains and find solutions.
The holy grail is to deliver a bottom-up, "mix and match" approach. Tenants need to be helped to approach a transfer or whatever stock investment option they choose in their own way. A closed or rushed option appraisal will only lead to a "no" vote.

There are two possible approaches. The first is a "forced devolution" model, as represented by the Community Gateway concept. I have been involved in this and have no wish to hype it unduly or steal its thunder; but its launch next month should generate a constructive debate and possibly open some hitherto closed doors.

The other approach is to overcome the valuation, legal and structural issues involved in responding to tenants' and residents' calls for investment in their own way and at their own pace. I am working on this too, with other interested parties.

Let's hope it finds its way into the promised blueprint for a community-led approach, to be announced by the secretary of state early next year. It would be a shame to find keys, only to be confronted with bolts as well as locks.