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Council seeks to take back control of estates amid concerns over housing association’s regeneration plans

A Greater Manchester council has expressed its desire to take back ownership of two large housing association-owned estates amid a row over the landlord’s regeneration plans.

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Towers on the College Bank Estate in Rochdale town centre (picture: Google Street View)
Towers on the College Bank Estate in Rochdale town centre (picture: Google Street View)
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Council seeks to take back control of estates amid concerns over housing association’s regeneration plans #ukhousing

A Greater Manchester council has expressed its desire to take back ownership of two large housing association-owned estates amid a row over the landlord’s regeneration plans #ukhousing

Rochdale's @CllrMeredith has voiced major concerns over a housing association's estate regeneration plans in a letter signed by 57 councillors #ukhousing

A letter signed by 57 of Rochdale Council’s 60 councillors, including the leader, “strongly” urged Rochdale Boroughwide Housing (RBH) “to reconsider their current demolition plans on College Bank and Lower Falinge”.

The Labour-run council’s letter demanded that RBH provide figures on how many social rented homes will be built in the area through the scheme – with demolition plans otherwise “halted immediately”.

In an extraordinary step it added that if the issue cannot be resolved, a “‘co-operative model’ where the council and the residents own and manage College Bank and Lower Falinge properties should be investigated”.

Gareth Swarbrick, chief executive of RBH, hit back in a letter sent on Thursday which said that council officers have not yet been able to come up with “a realistic alternative plan” to find the £90m needed to refurbish College Bank.

He added there was “simply no prospect” of RBH being able to afford the work “even if we stopped our entire investment programme in our other 12,000 homes over a prolonged period”.

A separate statement published earlier this week indicated that RBH would agree to the council taking ownership of College Bank if it could generate the £90m.


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RBH is the country’s largest social housing mutual with around 13,000 homes, having been formed through a stock transfer from the council in 2012.

It wants to knock down four of the seven large tower blocks that make up College Bank – better known locally as the Seven Sisters – with work intended to start this summer.

Work has already begun to demolish Lower Falinge, which is constructed of 18 three-storey blocks and was once branded a “welfare ghetto” by The Telegraph.

Funding for the regeneration project previously received £553,000 through David Cameron’s so-called “sink estates fund” announced in 2016.

RBH has not publicly stated how many homes will be demolished and built in total through the schemes, but has promised there will be a net increase including more family homes with gardens.

The council’s letter also requested that councillors be installed on the RBH board immediately and for residents to be allowed to move back into empty homes on the estates until RBH builds new social rent homes elsewhere.

It added that “many concerns have been raised by councillors regarding our housing emergency, the democratic input and the continued lack of service to our housing estates”.

RBH was also urged to offer empty flats in the Seven Sisters towers as emergency accommodation during the coronavirus crisis and to put all decanting work on hold until the pandemic is over.

Mr Swarbrick’s letter claimed RBH has “worked closely with the council and with other local partners” to provide homelessness support during the outbreak and that “nobody will be expected to move at the current time”.

He added that the association has been “working very closely with senior council officers since 2016 to develop a positive way forward for College Bank and Lower Falinge”.

There is a “severe mismatch between the quality, mix and choice of homes in central Rochdale and the needs and demands of local people”, he said, with the flats there seeing “much lower demand” than other types of home.

And he promised that the regeneration masterplan “will provide more homes at the end of the redevelopment process than the current number of homes in College Bank and Lower Falinge”, but said the “exact detail will be worked through in phases”.

Mr Swarbrick concluded: “I also look forward to receiving details of any viable alternative plan that the council has for investing the £90m-plus required at College Bank.

“Once these details are shared with us we will happily sit down with the council to discuss further”.

Around 7,000 households are on the housing waiting list in Rochdale, with around 150 joining each week according to the council.

Update: at 9.11am 27/04/20 more information about the regeneration plans was added to the story.

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