What type of ALMO are you?

Q1 Have you completed your decent homes programme?
a) yes
b) nearly
c) waiting for the results of an Audit Commission inspection

Q2 What is your main ambition?
a) to develop new homes
b) to provide quality management service
c) to complete decent homes programme

Q3 Why did your council form an arm’s-length management organisation originally?
a) it wanted to transfer stock, but the ALMO was easier to sell to tenants
b) to improve homes and provide a better management service
c) it was running out of other options to meet the decent homes standard

Q4 What is the greatest problem facing your community?
a) massive demand for new social homes
b) crime and anti-social behaviour
c) lack of decent housing

Q5 How active is Defend Council Housing in your area?
a) I think I remember seeing a leaflet once
b) it holds the odd meeting
c) extremely

Q6 What best sums up the attitude of your parent council towards housing?
a) we’d rather play a strategic role at most thank you very much
b) keen interest but they let us get on with it
c) hands on - sometimes obsessively so

Q7 Whose number are you most likely to have on speed dial?
a) David Orr at the National Housing Federation
b) Gwyneth Taylor at the National Federation of ALMOs
c) Roy Irwin at the Audit Commission

Q8 What’s your attitude to proposed reform of the council housing finance system?
a) Could be helpful for us. But it could take forever to sort out and we need to make other plans
b) Very interested. This could help us thrive in the long term
c) We like the idea. And it makes the council’s cabinet member for housing drool at the mouth

Q9 Which phrase are you most likely to overuse?
a) bricks and mortar
b) sustainable communities
c) show me the money

Q10 What was your favourite toy/game as a child?
a) Monopoly
b) Lego
c) Happy Families

What does the future hold for your ALMO?

Score: a = 1 point; b = 2 points; c = 3 points

10 to 14 points
You have long since completed your decent homes programme and are looking for a new challenge. With demand for housing at an all time high you think the priority has to be building new homes. Ideally you would like to remain as an ALMO but you see strong attractions in transferring your stock. Your parent council is likely to be amenable to this if it is not already encouraging you to do so. The speed of reform to the council housing finance system is likely to help make up your mind.

15 to 23 points
You have completed or are close to completing your decent homes programme. You are interested in developing new homes, either individually or in partnership with the private sector, but don’t see a major development programme as the be-all and end-all. Instead, your main focus is on maintaining and improving your existing stock and improving services to your tenants. You think the ALMO movement has been a big success and are keen to remain as an ALMO. You have a good relationship with your parent council.

24 to 30 points
You are still likely to be on the latter rounds of the ALMO programme and fully focused on delivering the decent homes programme. You might even be waiting for the results of an Audit Commission inspection. You may have worries about the future funding of the programme and look on your peers who have completed decent homes work with some envy. If you have completed decent homes work you are likely to be experiencing some interference from your parent council, which is interested in bringing the housing service back
in-house.

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