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Barking and Dagenham Council is set to transform its wholly owned housing company into an arms-length management company.
The council’s cabinet will decide on Tuesday whether to approve a report recommending the move.
The proposals would see Reside, which is a company set up by the council to build and let homes for affordable rent and shared ownership, run by a new board with an independent chair. It would then also offer homes for private sale.
The company will not be an ALMO in the traditional sense, as it will manage homes built by Reside, rather than directly by the council.
The council will retain control through a shareholder agreement and will collaborate with Reside “to realise the investment objectives of the council”. Through annual meetings, the cabinet will approve Reside’s successive business plans.
Reside was created in 2012 but now exists as a number of different limited liability partnerships and limited companies, set up for individual schemes.
The council intends to create a Reside Management Company to control future stock.
Its portfolio consists of more than 600 homes, with 200 to be built in early 2018. The council aims to increase this by 3,000 over the next five years, depending on the success of the council’s regeneration vehicle, Be First.
The move goes against a national trend, which has seen councils keen to bring their ALMOs back in-house.
In October last year, Brent Council shut down its 12,000-home ALMO, transferring its staff and responsibilities back into the council.
Last week, however, Poole’s ALMO survived a review of its housing services after the council had considered bringing it back in-house.
Update: at 09.55 on 25.01.18 A spokesperson from Barking and Dagenham Council, which had previously declined to comment, said: “In essence, the proposals are not to create an ALMO as the sector would understand that, but rather to create a new management organisation to asset manage housing developed with existing or new housing company entities.”