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From the archive – mixed-tenure developments given lukewarm reception
Inside Housing looks back at what was happening in the sector this week 10, 20 and 30 years ago
30 years ago
There were fears for the future of two Durham mineworkers’ housing associations after a private company they sponsored collapsed, owing them more than £250,000.
The collapse of DMW Housing Services led to the suspension of Ken Payne, chief executive at Durham Aged Mineworkers Homes Association and general secretary at Durham Mineworkers.
DMW Housing Services had been set up in December 1987, with Mr Payne as secretary. Twelve out of the company’s 14 directors were committee members of one or both of the associations.
The company opened a double glazing factory in 1988, with money transferred to it from the housing associations.
When liquidators were called in October 1989, it owed a total of £279,000 to the two organisations.
20 years ago
An investigation into mixed-tenure communities found only a lukewarm endorsement for the concept from tenants.
Mixed tenure had been championed by the Labour government as the form of development that could turn around struggling neighbourhoods. But the first detailed analysis of the plans from thinktank Demos found that putting owner-occupiers and social housing tenants into close proximity could create tension rather than grow inclusive communities.
Demos studied 10 estates and found little social contact between residents living in different tenures.
In its report, Demos said: “The hope that the current models of mixed-tenure estates will foster widespread mutual support between people from different economic groups, considerably broaden understanding between groups and/or introduce role models into an area, appears largely misplaced.”
At a seminar called to discuss the report, Chris Holmes, director at Shelter, commented: “I am surprised by some of the comments that there is agnosticism towards mixed tenure.”
Picture: Getty
10 years ago
An association was told that its dismissal of an employee was an act of race discrimination.
A tribunal ruled that Aldwyck Housing Association’s sacking of Errol Curniffe in December 2008, following a series of disciplinary procedures, had been “unfair”.
In a judgement seen by Inside Housing, the housing association was told that “an employee of a different race or ethnic origin from the claimant would not have been treated as he was during the disciplinary process and would not have been dismissed as he was”.
Mr Curniffe, a black British man, had worked at Aldwyck as a housing officer since 2001. In 2007, the size of the patch had increased and in the following year a series of disciplinary procedures were launched.
