Council merger will enable us to attract more housing investment

We will need to articulate a new overarching housing strategy and vision for the wider area. While many elements of a new housing strategy will be suitable across the whole area, there will no doubt be policy issues and service delivery models that will need to remain different in order to best meet the needs of the communities they serve.

Even within Bournemouth, we already have a separate housing strategy in place for one of our regeneration areas – one size doesn’t always fit all.

There is already a great deal of joint housing work across the current nine Dorset councils which we will build on.

“There are many policy and operational differences that can no doubt continue to work alongside each other.”

There will be opportunities for achieving economies of scale and there will also be opportunities to roll out the many examples of best practice within the individual councils forming the new unitary area.

The three councils have different ways of managing their social housing stock.

Bournemouth owns and manages its own housing stock involving more than 5,100 rented homes, the Borough of Poole manages its stock through an ALMO, while Christchurch transferred its stock to a housing association many years ago.

Each of these models works well and delivers great services to tenants. In terms of homelessness, the demands and services are very different in the three areas but there are areas of good practice that we can all benefit from.

Across the whole housing agenda, there are many policy and operational differences that can no doubt continue to work alongside each other, but equally there will be many opportunities for positive change by bringing services together into one cohesive housing function.

In Bournemouth we have been working hard over recent years to develop innovative ways to tackle our housing issues.

Some recent examples include the setting up of the joint venture Bournemouth Development Company to help stimulate housing growth, and the establishment of Seascape Homes and Property to become a private sector landlord and let properties to homeless households.

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With a focus on our local building maintenance sector, we have also established two wholly owned maintenance companies – Seascape South and Bournemouth Building and Maintenance – to deliver services and help further grow our well-developed apprenticeship activity.

Equally there are many good practice examples across Poole and Christchurch from which we can all benefit.

“The transition from three different organisations into one new blended housing vision will take some time.”

It is important to remember that joint working needs to continue with the rural unitary council which will serve the other half of Dorset.

We already do a lot of work with the councils in the west of the county and we are clear that this needs to continue.

Working together as two larger unitary councils covering the whole of Dorset will bring about much more efficient service delivery and ultimately bring even better housing outcomes for our residents.

The transition from three different organisations into one new blended housing vision will take some time.

No doubt it will be a long journey, but one that our housing teams are eager to take on, to the benefit of all our residents.

John Beesley, leader, Bournemouth Borough Council