No change to management of council’s housing stock

Following consideration of various options it has been decided that the council will retain management of its housing stock for the immediate future.

A Working Party has been meeting regularly over the last year to discuss options regarding management of the council’s housing stock. At their meeting on Thursday 12 October Councillor John Mansfield told attendees that, following careful consideration the Cabinet is minded to end the current deliberations since no option has been found that would deliver tenant-led management of the council’s housing stock without considerable annual costs to the council.

Councillor Roger Trigg, Executive Member for Housing, said: “This decision has not been made lightly. We have consulted both professional legal and housing specialists and the working party group also visited three existing tenant-led organisations in Preston, Barnet and Kensington & Chelsea before a decision was made.

“The Tenants Panel, whilst being very disappointed at the outcome, was positive about the work done by the steering group, which may provide some useful ideas for consideration at a later time."

Any future decisions about the housing stock will be made in consultation with tenants and subject to approval from executive members and councillors.