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Founder of housing association dies aged 78
Barrie Blower, the founder of Caldmore Area Housing Association and chair of Accord, has died aged 78.
Mr Blower established the housing association in the 1970s with the aim of providing affordable homes and services for local people in need. He was awarded an MBE in 1993 for services to the community.
Having left school at 15 after being expelled twice, Mr Blower spent a year working on the railway with his father but disliked it and decided to join the Navy.
He moved with his family to Caldmore, Walsall after being made homeless and despite the basic housing they found themselves in, Mr Blower said that he had a “great feeling about living in Caldmore as I felt I belonged to everyone on the street as the mums would look after each other’s kids and I felt safe”.
His father, Bert, was a trade unionist and Mr Blower found himself running the 1970 General Election campaign for the Labour Party in Walsall South. During this time he met Simon Major, a sociologist, and Brian Powell, who had lost a safe Labour seat, and the three established Caldmore Residents’ Action Group. Mr Blower’s father was elected chair and the committee held its first meetings in their front room.
Grants and donations enabled the group to buy a shopfront a few months later which became an advice centre. This was manned by Mr Blower and volunteers, none of whom were trained. By 1972, every street in Caldmore had its own representative, the neighbourhood was divided into localities and a more formal structure started to take place. Outside London, it was the largest housing action group in the country.
In June 1972, Caldmore Area Housing Association was born and the association bought its first two houses for £400 each, which were refurbished and let to local people. It later moved into development.
Caldmore eventually joined Accord Housing Association, and Mr Blower became chair of Accord’s board in 2012 and then patron.
As well as his interest in housing, Mr Blower is widely credited with saving Walsall Football Club after the team was threatened with a move to a groundshare in Birmingham. He was latterly the club president.
Accord called him “a truly passionate man, committed to making people’s lives better”.
Mr Blower died last Thursday.
Tom Murtha, former chief executive of Midland Heart and a former colleague of Mr Blower, said: “He was known as a champion of tenant and community power, a larger than life figure who wore his hair long when it was no longer fashionable, a passionate speaker and sometimes maverick.
“He was one of the early leaders of social housing who laid the foundations of the housing association movement.”
His wife, Sharon, died in 2011 after a long illness. He is survived by his daughter Sadie, son-in-law Adam and grandson Connor.
