New era for social housing to begin in Tower Hamlets

A new era for social housing in the London borough of Tower Hamlets starts on Monday when the council hands over its housing stock to a new arms length management organisation.

Set up by the council, Tower Hamlets Homes (THH) will aim to bring a number of benefits for residents, including improving services, providing a great say in the housing service and the potential to bring in millions of extra pounds of government money for repairs and improvements to people's homes.
 
Through THH, council tenants and leaseholders remain with the council and residents have been reassured that the only change will be in the day-to-day management of their homes.

Like all ALMOs, THH will be inspected by the Audit Commission, and if it gains a two star, or good, rating it will be eligible for extra government money. The money will be used to bring homes up to a decent standard - warm, weatherproof and with modern facilities.
 
The council still owns the housing and keeps responsibility for housing policy and for rents.

It is also the sole owner of THH, which will carry out day-to-day management of housing services under contract to the council.

Tenants are still council tenants with exactly the same secure tenancy agreement and leaseholders are still council leaseholders with exactly the same lease. Residents’ rights and responsibilities are the same.
 
THH will be governed by a board of 15 people, consisting of one third councillors, one third independents with specialist expertise in things like law, housing management and finance and one third residents.
 
Councillor Marc Francis, lead member for housing, said: "This is a great opportunity for housing in Tower Hamlets. It will bring a stronger focus to improving our service and far greater involvement for residents in the housing service.

"If we can prove that our service has improved, we will secure hundreds of millions of pounds of investment to bring tenants’ homes up to the decent standard.”