London ALMO buys in to property market
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An arm’s-length management organisation in London is to become the first to buy homes.
Councillors in Brent have agreed to allow Brent Housing Partnership to buy 110 new flats and maisonettes.
BHP managing director Helen Evans said: ‘Over the next few weeks we will be working closely with Brent Council to reach an agreement that is good for BHP, the council and most importantly for residents.
‘After which the final decision to go ahead will be made by the BHP board in the new year.’
The homes are in a new Brent Council development called Granville New Homes, which is part of its £1 billion regeneration programme for South Kilburn.
They were originally to be sold to Hyde Housing Association but a purchase price could not be agreed and the council decided to sell the homes to the ALMO.
Gwyneth Taylor, policy manager of the National Federation of ALMOs, said: ‘They are the first ones but certainly won’t be the last. [This shows] ALMOs have real potential to help councils in these sorts of scenarios – there are real opportunities for ALMOs in the current difficult economic climate.’
Alistair McIntosh, chief executive of Housing Quality Network, said: ‘It shows there is a huge amount of life in the ALMO model and the thunder ball of ALMO regeneration and development has started.’
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Readers' comments (1)
Pawla Cottage | 18/12/2008 1:36 pm
This allows Almo's to become both landlord and management company -so much for the argument for setting up the Almos -that management should be separate from ownership.
Given that the Almo is a private company one presumes that as a landlord it can only grant assured not secure tenancies. Please correct me if I am wrong.
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