Quarter of ALMOs want to transfer homes

A survey by auditor Baker Tilly, seen exclusively by Inside Housing, found 25 per cent of ALMOs wanted to become stockholding and developing large-scale voluntary transfers. Fifty-three per cent said they saw their future as stockholding and developing ALMOs.

Less than a tenth said they were considering other options, including hybrid models such as the community-owned, council-owned or ‘COCO’ organisations currently under consideration by the National Federation of ALMOs. Thirty-seven of England’s 69 ALMOs responded to the survey.

The research also revealed tension between the ALMOs and their parent council. A third said they felt they did not receive the full support of the council and half said their council was not well-placed to lead an increase in social housing in their local areas.

David Lewis, partner at Baker Tilly, said: ‘This might reflect the uncertainty of some ALMOs about their councils’ ability to manage the development of additional social housing.

‘We’re not sure how realistic this is, as in setting up the ALMO, the tenants would have voted for the ownership of their homes to stay with the council and there’s no indication that might have changed.’

Forty-nine per cent of the ALMOs, admitted that their organisation had only a ‘superficial understanding’ of the Tenant Services Authority’s new regulatory regime, while 60 per cent did not believe the new regulator would have a significant impact on them.

The auditors conducted the survey in February, just two months before the regulator launched its new regime. Sue Hutchinson, director of Baker Tilly’s social housing group, said: ‘These results are worrying as one interpretation could be that due to this lack of understanding, some ALMOs will assume that they will automatically benefit from the TSA’s intended ‘lighter touch’ regulation.

Three quarters of the ALMOs described the overall impact of the credit crunch on their organisation as ‘not significant’.

Have your say

You must sign in to make a comment