Pot of gold

Alan Rickman

Winchester council tenant and joint chair of Tenants and Council Together, Winchester

‘[MP] Austin Mitchell hit the nail on the head when he said we need to establish how much money each council needs to maintain its homes… and to build a new generation of first-class council homes.

‘Tenants don’t trust MPs any more. MPs are so interested in looking after their own affairs, they don’t realise how much tenants and councils are struggling.

‘All council tenants feel the rent money we pay should be used by our own council. We don’t necessarily expect it to happen overnight… Winchester pays more than £8 million a year in negative subsidy. If we had half of that [to keep] it would help us. The council had to apologise to our tenants this year, saying we’re going to have to cut back on things… only essential repairs will be carried out. It’s hitting, and yet we’re still paying that amount.’

Will ministers go all the way and let councils become self-financing?
‘We had high hopes at the beginning of the review… but we will need to see what the final outcome is.’

Mike Owen

Executive director, arm’s-length management organisation Carrick Housing

‘The review has been slower than I would have anticipated, and it’s identified that there isn’t an easy solution. They could do something really radical: take [the entire] HRA out of public sector borrowing [so it won’t add to the national debt]. That would be the best result of all. You just don’t know what will happen with the current state of politics.

‘If there was any time it was more likely to happen, it’s now. Before the recession, the major barrier was opposition from the City. But who cares what the City thinks now?

‘If the current system stays as it is, everyone will be very, very disappointed and feel that we’ve wasted a lot of time and it will hasten the stock transfer programme. At the moment it’s a bit like if it’s one-nil at half time: would you take it if you thought you [still] might get huge amounts of freedom and control of your rents?’

Will ministers go all the way and let councils become self-financing?
‘I’m not sure. I think self-financing was always going to be complicated.’

David Hall

Director, Tribal consultancy, and HRA review advisor

‘It remains to be seen whether the review will deliver as much as people are hoping.

‘There’s got to be a political will to allow more localised control. The Treasury is pulling the strings to some extent now.

‘If the deal isn’t strong enough then people won’t want to do it and it’s back to the status quo and a number of local authorities will look at stock transfer as an alternative.

‘There’s a risk that the status quo will be maintained and that would be unfortunate given the desires of some authorities. In a sense, the whole review process is really missing an opportunity.

‘They got too bogged down in the technical stuff at the beginning. It should have had a vision and taken a wider look at social housing [across the board].’

Will ministers go all the way and let councils become self-financing?
‘The pessimist in me says economic circumstances will make them keep control. I hope I’m wrong.’

John Perry

Policy advisor, Chartered Institute of Housing

‘Self-financing is up there with the options. It’s the best option if it’s done in the right way. It’s the only show in town that will give a sustainable future to council housing.

‘The detail needs to be worked on because some councils can’t be completely self-financing. There is a question about whether there is enough money in the system to finance all the councils to do all the work they need to do. [The government will likely have to make up the difference.]

‘The merits of self-financing are so obvious we should all be pushing for that. Unless there’s a clear option for self-financing in the review, it will have failed. There actually are various degrees of self-financing and two are alterations of the present system. Almost any improvement in the current system will be welcome. The CIH is saying this is an unparalleled opportunity.’

Will ministers go all the way and let councils become self-financing?
‘The jury’s out at the moment. I don’t think that ministers are persuaded yet.’

Brian Reilly

Deputy director of housing, Wandsworth Council

‘Wandsworth holds the deputy chair of the Association of Retained Council Housing. ARCH’s position [in support of self-financing] is a good indication of where Wandsworth is at.

‘We pay more than £20 million a year in negative subsidy back to the Treasury. That is redistributed in a bizarre mechanism which doesn’t lend itself to being easily understood. From our discussions with the Communities and Local Government department, we felt there was a realisation the current situation was not fit for purpose. It will be challenging to get the deal done [to] allow authorities to retain and maintain their stock in the long term. But that’s the deal that must be done.

‘Some ARCH members are beneficiaries from the current system and they should not suffer… I’m not suggesting they should have no additional resources. It’s about a fair settlement for all retained councils.’

Will ministers go all the way and let councils become self-financing?
‘We don’t really know. It’s very hard to know how far the government will go.’

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