Tenants vote to bring Sheffield's 42,000 council homes back in-house

Published by Ross Macmillan for 24dash.com in Housing and also in Central Government, Communities, Local Government

Sheffield City Council looks set to regain control of its council housing after nearly 90% of tenants who took part in a ballot agreed the management should be taken in-house from 2014.

Since 2004, Sheffield council's 42,000 homes had been managed by Sheffield Homes, an Arms Length Management Organisation (ALMO).  

The ALMO - which has consistently scored the maximum ‘excellent’ rating in three consecutive Audit Commission inspections - was set up in order to attract over £700m of Decent Homes funding, but its contract is due to expire in 2014.

The council's preferred option was to manage the stock directly, and recently asked all council tenants to take part in a ballot.

In total, 26,465 valid votes were cast by tenants - over half of all tenants in Sheffield.  Almost 9 out of 10 voted to have their home managed directly by the council in the future.

The results of the ballot will now go into a report with other information gathered during the consultation period, which will be considered by the council’s Cabinet on March 21. The cabinet will then formally make a decision.

Councillor Harry Harpham, Cabinet Member for Homes and Regeneration, said: “The tenants of Sheffield have spoken loud and clearly. This ballot result is a strong message from tenants that they want management of their homes back with Sheffield City Council. Of the tenants who did take part in the ballot, about nine out of ten would like to have their home managed directly by the council. 

“This is a big decision for the city and will determine how we shape council housing in the future. We would like to thank Sheffield Homes for the great job they have done managing tenants homes over the last eight years.

“Our first priority now is to involve as many tenants as possible in the decision making around services. We will concentrate on how we can best deliver a first-class housing service for our tenants.

“We are acutely aware of the enormous challenges we face given the cuts in funding from central government, despite this we aim to deliver a first rate service to our tenants that they will welcome and support.”