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From the archive – confusion reigns over MoD housing sell-off plans
Inside Housing looks back at what was happening in the sector this week five, 15 and 25 years ago
25 years ago
The row over the privatisation of 68,000 homes owned by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) continued, with housing managers urged to press ahead with plans in the face of widespread disillusionment.
The sale of the MoD’s ‘married quarters’ housing had been slated for April the following year and was expected to deliver £500m.
However, an announcement from defence secretary Malcolm Rifkind on the future of the Crown Estate, which previously operated the MoD homes, had been delayed earlier in the month, prompting fresh doubts over the privatisation agenda, with sources citing a dispute between the Treasury and MoD.
In the meantime, the government was in the process of setting up a Defence Housing Executive, which was tasked with improving the management of the estate.
15 years ago
Harrow Council looked set to become the first local authority to ditch plans to form an ALMO, just weeks before it was due to go live.
The council said it was “seriously minded” not to hand management of its stock over to the new organisation and instead came up with last-minute plans to use prudential borrowing to fund improvements.
Karen Wilson, chair of the shadow board at the proposed ALMO, said that the board was surprised by the announcement.
A survey of tenants in February of that year had shown that 70% backed the transfer to the ALMO.
Ms Wilson said: “[The tenant board members] are very surprised and I think they are very concerned that this means that things are going back rather than forward.
“It brings a period of uncertainty and I think for tenants the question will be if the ALMO is not going to proceed, what does that mean for the quality of our services and for the investment in the stock?”
But the council maintained that the cost of improvements to its stock would not have been covered by the £11.8m it had bid for from government under its ALMO programme.
Picture: Ed Moss
Five years ago
A Labour Party-commissioned review calling for ‘affordable’ rents to reflect local incomes was dismissed as too costly to achieve.
Sir Michael Lyons’ (above) report on housing supply, published the previous week, had said that planning policy should revise its definition of ‘affordable’ to take into account “local incomes and house prices”.
The much-heralded report was a reaction to concerns that homes built in high-value areas under the 2011 to 2015 Affordable Homes Programme, which allowed landlords to charge up to 80% of market rent, were out of reach for most tenants.
But association figures said the recommendation would require councils to undertake household income surveys, which had been dropped by cash-strapped town halls.
