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Stock transfer monitoring
Following a detailed option appraisal process involving locals tenants, leaseholders and elected members, the Council agreed in February 2003 to the transfer of its Council housing stock as the chosen means of achieving the ‘decent homes standard’ through an investment programme worth in excess of £170m covering over 14,500 homes, and the wider investment needs for Wirral’s housing stock.
Prior to the final tenant’s vote on stock transfer, formal consultation documents called ‘Home Choice’ were distributed to every council household and leaseholder in the Borough. This document detailed the full proposal to transfer to WPH. In addition, those tenants and leaseholders of the Beechwood and Ballantyne Estates received an additional Home Choice document on the proposed transfer to Beechwood and Ballantyne Community Housing Association.
Both ‘Home Choice’ documents set out the formal offer to tenants, the terms of the transfer and the ‘Promises’ to be made post transfer.
Following the successful ballot of tenants in favour of stock transfer on the 7th February 2005, the Beechwood and Ballantyne stock was transferred to the newly formed Beechwood and Ballantyne Community Housing Association (BBCHA) and the remaining Council stock transferred to Wirral Partnership Homes (WPH).
The process of stock transfer monitoring includes providing a six monthly update report to Councillors on the progress made by Wirral Partnership Homes (WPH) and Beechwood and Ballantyne Community Housing Association (BBCHA) in meeting the promises made in the original ‘Promise Offer’ consultation documents which formed part of the housing stock transfer on 7th February 2005.
Both WPH and BBCHA are committed to achieving all the promises, and see the monitoring, and reporting progress process as an integral part of delivering a good, tenant focused housing service.
Both transfer companies are RSLs (Registered Social Landlords) and therefore regulated by the Housing Corporation and this monitoring is an additional commitment from the Council, as part of the Transfer Agreement to monitor the progress of the two companies against those original promises made to tenants in the formal offer documents.
Monitoring Framework
Thirteen themes have been identified from both offer documents, forming the basis of the current monitoring framework and covering all aspects of social housing management within the community as follows:-
Rent / Income
Service Improvements & Estate Management
Investment programme
Sheltered housing
Disabled adaptations
Anti Social Behaviour
Insurance
Extras Services for Tenants
Allocations / Lettings
Tenant Involvement & Community Consultation
Tenants Rights
Work with Others to Improve the Area
New Homes
Progress on achieving promises
The progress is reported every six months to Wirral Council’s Housing and Community Safety Scrutiny & Overview Committee and a copy of the last report (11th June 2007) can be accessed via the Meetings & Minutes section of the Council website.