Truth over homes
I do not know where academics Dr Cathy Davis and Alan Wigfield, of Sheffield Hallam and Salford universities (Dec 20) get their information or who they represent but they are utterly wrong on two key points when urging tenants to vote to return council housing management to the city council.
They say rents will rise more if Sheffield Homes continues to manage council housing. This is completely untrue as rents have always been and always will be set by the council. Sheffield Homes has had no responsibility for rent-setting.
They also argue that those who control Sheffield Homes are ‘unelected people who were never voted in’. This too is untrue. The company is wholly-owned by the elected city council and operates within a management contract with the council.
Sheffield Homes has 15 directors, seven of whom are elected by all council tenants, three of whom are appointed by the council (currently two councillors and an executive director) and five independents appointed by the board on the recommendation of its nominations committee, which includes council representatives.
Whatever the merits of the different views expressed during the debate about the future of Sheffield Homes, it is vital that tenants are not misled by inaccurate statements by two academics.
Prof Tony Crook, chair, Sheffield Homes 2004-09
As a Sheffield Homes board member, Jose Derrick continues to valiantly defend it (Jan 21) but she she must remember that the organisation was set up in the face of fierce opposition to stock transfer and to access government money for modernisation.
During its existence, Sheffield Homes has had the benefit of millions of government money but with its contract coming to an end and money drying up other things must be considered.
A disadvantage from a funder’s perspective is that if a loan is not secured on assets then it would look for guarantee on rental stream as under PFI. Sheffield Homes has no properties to use as an asset base and would seemingly have to tailor rents to meet repayments on future loans.
Unless the situation has changed, surely this has to be a factor for tenants to seriously consider when deciding to stay with Sheffield Homes or return to the council!
Mary Steele
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There are 7 comments to this article
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Reason
Friday, January 27, 2012 at 12:30 PMThis is a simple equation, Sheffield Homes has managed the housing department in Sheffield since 2004. As far as I am aware, the have made huge savings both for the tenants and the council, both in staff reductions and good working practices that are the envy of housing departments around the country. They have achieved 3 star ratings from the audit commission in 3 consecutive inspections (for service to tenants), being the first organisation in the country to do so. Now lets ask again why the council want to get their hands back on the organisation? Harpham and his so called experts keep saying its to save money, prevent duplication etc etc That is total clap trap and he knows it. #2 In response to your query about tenants bothering to vote. Can you tell me how many people bothered to vote at the last local or general elections? Even if you can, it would mean nothing because I doubt that more than say 40% (and I would take that as a high estimate) of the population of the city bothered to vote, so if we take it to the extremes, neither the city council or the present government can hardly say that they have a mandate to rule can they?. They got elected due to the apathy of the majority British public in regard to voting. #5 You keep banging that big old red Labour drum....even if it does sound dull and out of tune. We are constantly being told that the public sector is not achieving what they should and that people should not be worried about privatisation....you can hardly compare council housing with the private sector housing market bust...especially in the USA. You are just scare mongering, Private sector properties make up the majority of Sheffield's housing and there is a large portion of private rented properties in that market too. I think that a lot of very wealthy companies would jump at the chance to provide housing management to the city. Its a huge investment, 50,000 odd properties. Sheffield Homes has shown that it has the expertise to drag a delapidated housing stock and system into the modern world - why not give them the chance to do it as a private company. So long as robust legislation is there to protect the rights of tenants, what do we have to worry about? I say tell the Council to go jump in the lake and leave well alone.
dromedary
Wednesday, January 25, 2012 at 01:40 PM#4 Steve, yes I know. . . . What I was pointing out is that it is not correct to say "wholly-owned by the elected city council." . . . The ALMO has nothing at all to do with who is elected or in power at the time.
Paul Burnham
Wednesday, January 25, 2012 at 01:31 AMThis government wants Almos to become housing associations [Open Public Services. White Paper, July 2011]. Thy want to privatise Almos and open them up to private finance, but with privatisation comes market risk, and control by the private funders in the last resort. The credit crunch started because markets don’t work in housing, and speculation in housing markets came unstuck with sub-prime mortgages in the USA. We need to stop this government’s plans to settle a huge additional debt on council tenants. Labour wanted to redistribute £18 billion of housing debt in 2009, but now the Con Dems plan to redistribute £29.6 billion! Let’s shut the Almo, say No to privatisation and fight together for a better deal for council housing. Let’s save £2 million a year on duplication of functions with the Almo, and put that money into front line services to tenants. PS the council say that if the Almo closes, some staff would be transferred from the Almo to Capita, because of Capita’s contract with Sheffield City Council for computing, and some human resources stuff. But most Sheffield Homes people would be transferred to the Council itself.
stevee
Tuesday, January 24, 2012 at 11:20 PMDromedary - to correct you - Sheffield Homes is an arms length management organisation wholly owned by the council. The council decides how much management fee it gets each year
seenitall
Tuesday, January 24, 2012 at 03:37 PMUnder the old regime of th Housing Department how much did the administration cost? Under this Quango how much?
dromedary
Tuesday, January 24, 2012 at 01:54 PMBTW Prof Tony Cook. . . Just to correct you, Sheffield Homes is a quango and is not owned by the elected council as it has nothing to do with which elected council is in power at the time. . . . The seven elected directors were not elected by all council tenants but by the ones that chose to reply to the ALMO voting paper. . . . Perhaps you could tell us exactly how many out of the total amount of council tenants bothered to reply to this vote? . . . I agree though, it is vital that tenants are not misled by inaccurate statements by any academic.
Zap
Tuesday, January 24, 2012 at 09:37 AMIf it goes back to SCC control they are already lining it up for capita to run it fort hem - so its a choice - Sheffield Homes - non profit making almo or profit hungry capita? Its a simple choice
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