Minutes:
The Steering Group welcomed Mary Johnson and Derek Millard from Cottsway Homes, a local transfer housing association operating in West Oxfordshire, who described their experience of the transfer of the housing stock to a new housing association.
The transfer had been prompted by a financial crisis where the District Council would have needed to increase rents by 37%. Tenants and councillors worked together to find other ways of funding the council housing. A Tenants’ Friend was selected by the tenants panel to give impartial advice. A steering group had been formed in 1999. The first meeting had 315 tenants present, which reduced to an average of 30-35 per meeting, two or three times a week. The steering group set up sub committees on special issues, visited other transfer associations and put together a 78 page Offer Document which was negotiated line by line with the Council by the steering group. An information video was provided to every household to explain the offer document and the transfer proposals.
A Shadow Board including tenant reps and councillors was elected and held its first meeting in April 2000. The ballot of tenants was held later that year. A turnout of 3,750 tenants (72.2%) voted: 2,467 were in favour of transfer (65.8%) and 1,280 against (34.2%). The formal transfer took place on 26 March 2001.
The Offer Document was treated as the ‘bible’ for the Cottsway Housing service. It set out a programme of improvements for the first five years, all of which had now been fulfilled.
In answer to further questions the following points were noted:
· Post-transfer rents had been held at inflation + 1%. Rents were historically very low in West Oxfordshire so they had been given until 2016 for the rents to reach convergence under the Government’s rent restructuring programme. There had been increases of 3.5% annually for the last few years. This year’s increase was capped at 6%.
· The offer document is a legally binding document and delivery of the programme was monitored closely by the Council, the tenants and the Housing Corporation.
· The 120 Leaseholders’ leases had not been altered by the transfer. Their service charges had increased to reflect the improved level of service they were receiving. A consultation group had been established for leaseholders.
· All housing and repairs staff had been transferred to Cottsway under TUPE regulations, apart from the four who remained with the Council to operate the common waiting list and strategic housing functions. There had been no redundancies. On the contrary, additional staff had been employed to deal with the larger programme of improvements and repairs. Staff had negotiated new contracts through their staff association. A better and more consistent pay and reward structure had been introduced. All staff had negotiated pay rises, better and more consistent working conditions and car parking spaces. Nobody had been less than satisfied with these arrangements. The staff were not union members, although they would be welcome to join a union if they wished.
· Cottsway had paid £50.9m for the 3,600 homes (it was pointed out that this level of receipt for the Council would not have been achievable in the current market, where funders were indicating an average price of £3,000 per dwelling).
· Cottsway had developed 87 new affordable homes in the last two years, with another 400 proposed.
· Improvements had been delivered for all homes, including refurbishment and refitting, new external doors and cladding and replacement double-glazed windows and creation of 352 new car parking spaces.
· Cottsway was on target to meet the Decent Homes Standard early (by 2007). It was now creating its own ‘Cottsway Standard’ in consultation with tenants and an improvement programme for the next five years. This included upgrades of all sheltered accommodation, building of new dwellings, community facilities such as village halls and youth work provision.
· Cottsway was the largest of 17 RSLs operating in West Oxfordshire and planned to get its housing numbers up towards 6,000, through development and acquisitions, to ensure its longer-term viability. It had been asked to provide management support for one small RSL and to share skilled workers with a sheltered scheme.
· In conclusion, the Cottsway team’s experience had been extremely positive and this was due in large part to the Council’s decision to involve tenants fully from the outset.
The Chairman, on behalf of the Steering Group, thanked Mary Johnson and Derek Millard for their attendance and participation.