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Wigan Council set to scrap ALMO
Wigan Council is expected to take back control of housing stock from its arm’s-length management organisation (ALMO), after a report concluded the move would save £5.5m.
The report proposes that the 22,000-plus properties currently managed by Wigan & Leigh Homes are reintegrated and will be considered by the council’s cabinet on Thursday.
Of 171 tenants who responded to the report’s consultation, 58 agreed with plans to return housing management responsibility to the council, while 14 disagreed and 18 expressed no preference.
A Wigan Council official told Inside Housing savings would come from a reduction in duplicated services and “integrating teams into the council”.
See also
Reduction of 31 ALMOs in five years The overall number of ALMOs reduced by 31 between 2010 and 2015, our detailed summary shows.
But Eamon McGoldrick, chief executive of the National Federation of ALMOs, said: “The cabinet report is a mixture of fact and fiction to justify a decision that the council actually made months ago.
“A total of 58 residents in favour of closing the ALMO from a total of 22,000 is hardly a ringing endorsement and no council closing an ALMO has ever claimed savings of that magnitude.”
The report, which is signed off by Karl Battersby, director for economy and environment at Wigan Council, concludes that reintegration could “improve outcomes for tenants” and cut costs through “efficiency savings and better use of the Housing Revenue Account”.
It predicts the move would save £1m next year, with the remaining savings made over the next three years.
The consultation was carried out from November to January after a Deloitte review concluded an in-house service would work better than the ALMO system.
Since Wigan & Leigh Homes was set up in 2002, customer satisfaction for repair services to council housing has risen from 79% to 89%. If the cabinet approves reintegration, its staff will be transferred into various council departments.
Update: at 13.06pm, 15.02.17: Mr Battersby said: “We consulted every single tenant and had a very low response, which indicates that the issue for tenants is not who manages the stock, but the services provided.
“As a council we are committed to providing high quality services and fully involving tenants. The savings being targeted are not just from efficiencies and removing duplication, but also about how we invest our resources differently going forward.”
