Hyndburn Homes - Who Owns What?

[Retlaw]

Somethings puzzling me about the housing stock that used to belong to Hyndburn Borough Councils, face ache used to be employed by Hyndburn, at the Cannon St offices of Hyndburns Housing department, suddenly all the housing stock and 57 employees were moved to the Globe center, as Hyndburn Homes.
Now they have merged with another company. So who do the actual houses belong to, Hyndburn Council ?, or Hyndburn Homes ?.
If they now belong to H.H., what happened to the money from the sale of these houses, and the savings that should have occured when the staff were transferred.
Retlaw

[shillelagh]

here you go retlaw ...

Housing Strategy - Housing Stock Transfer

[harwood red]

retlaw my knowledge is a bit shaky on this one but I believe there is not actually any sell off, just the council transferring ownership to supposedly the best choice by council and then tenant vote. The reason stock transfers happen is due to the council's being unable to raise the capital to get all their housing up to the Decent homes standard 2010

In Blackburn with Darwen, Twin Valley Homes was a new company specifically created for this purpose and since 2001 have gone from strength to strength, taking on Pendle Housing and now joining forces with other Housing assoc's to become part of the bigger "Together Group" (yes I know the names makes me cringe too!!!).

Sadly Twin Valley came in second when applying for the Hyndburn stock transfer due to the tenants voting more towards Contour

[garinda]

Did the transfer of the housing stock mean whatever housing association now owns them?

If not, who does actually own them?

Not sure, but I suspect some kind lady might know, but I believe Twin Valley Homes has built new homes, and increased their stock.

Have any new properties been built in Hyndburn since the transfer?

[harwood red]

The Houses are now owned by the Housing association in control of them. Although we have built more homes our stock has still reduced due to tenants who were council tenants keeping their right to buy option which many have taken.

[garinda]

Originally Posted by harwood red

The Houses are now owned by the Housing association in control of them. Although we have built more homes our stock has still reduced due to tenants who were council tenants keeping their right to buy option which many have taken.

Not cast aspersions on any particular housing association, they were once publicly owned, and financed by the raising of public taxes, and now they aren't.

In reality they were given away.

Can't even be said to be similar to selling off the family silver.

More like opening the door, and watch while folk walk off with it.

Thanks for the information Red. x

Anyone know if the number of homes in Hyndburn has gone up or down since the transfer, and if they've similarly invested in the creation of new homes, to add to their property stock?

[MargaretR]

My research on the other thread shows that they own 3,256 properties in Hyndburn.
I have spent most of the day websearching and need a break from this.
Maybe someone else can find out how many HBC handed over to them.

They have done some new builds on Charter St and have just got planning permission to build a few bungalows on the site of Within Grove shops.

PS I recall they got planning permission to build two bungalows on the site of garages next to St Pauls school a couple of years back and they haven't happened.

[Retlaw]

Originally Posted by garinda

Not cast aspersions on any particular housing association, they were once publicly owned, and financed by the raising of public taxes, and now they aren't.

In reality they were given away.

Can't even be said to be similar to selling off the family silver.

More like opening the door, and watch while folk walk off with it.

Thanks for the information Red. x

Anyone know if the number of homes in Hyndburn has gone up or down since the transfer, and if they've similarly invested in the creation of new homes, to add to their property stock?

Gave them away, hoody blell, what right had they to give them to any one, but that does'nt answer the question of the saving in wages, when the staff were transferred as well, we never heard about that, and not long after, britcliffes mob were in the red.
Retlaw.

[MargaretR]

Found this in an old pdf leaflet issued by HBC before the stock transfer -
The Stock Condition report showed that 664 homes failed the Decent Homes
criterion (18.82% of the stock), and a further 2,544 properties have the potential
to fail if no investment is made. To meet and retain the government’s Decent Homes
Standard the report identified the need to spend £154m on the Council housing stock over the next 30 years. £45.2m of this needs to be
spent by March 2010 to meet the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister’s deadline of 2010. This expenditure includes capital works consisting
of catch up repairs, future major works and improvements to the stock as well as some estate and environmental improvement works.

664 homes = 18.82% of stock

someone else do the maths please my mind is seizing up

[garinda]

Originally Posted by MargaretR

Found this in an old pdf leaflet issued by HBC before the stock transfer -
The Stock Condition report showed that 664 homes failed the Decent Homes
criterion (18.82% of the stock), and a further 2,544 properties have the potential
to fail if no investment is made. To meet and retain the government’s Decent Homes
Standard the report identified the need to spend £154m on the Council housing stock over the next 30 years. £45.2m of this needs to be
spent by March 2010 to meet the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister’s deadline of 2010. This expenditure includes capital works consisting
of catch up repairs, future major works and improvements to the stock as well as some estate and environmental improvement works.

664 homes = 18.82% of stock

someone else do the maths please my mind is seizing up

3,528

I think.

[entwisi]

=3528 if you just do the straight maths ( plus a bit due to rounding errors)

[MargaretR]

So there are 272 fewer now.
The new builds on Charter St replaced some old breeze block ones that had to be demolished.
Some houses were demolished on Within Grove estate - don't know when.

[harwood red]

and others will have been lost through the right to buy

[gynn]

Originally Posted by Retlaw

Gave them away, hoody blell, what right had they to give them to any one, but that does'nt answer the question of the saving in wages, when the staff were transferred as well, we never heard about that, and not long after, britcliffes mob were in the red.
Retlaw.

Before the stock transfer, the Council had to account for all the wages and other costs relating to Council housing in a separate account together with the rents that it received. This was called the Housing Revenue Account and it had to be kept in balance every year without any subsidies to or from the Council Tax.

When the houses were transferred to Contour, the Housing Revenue Account effectively went as part of the deal, with Contour paying the wages and other running costs, but also getting the rental income.

As for who owns the houses, the Council received a payment of 36 million pounds from the Government for them, so it definitely isn't the Council. This money was used tp repay debt that the Council had built up over the decades building the houses and other buildings.

The 2005/6 Statement of Accounts puts the number of houses at the point of transfer as 3,407.

[jaysay]

When the council housing stock was under the councils control, there were a lot of constraints on just what they could do with those properties, council house rents were ring fenced and only money raised through rents could be spent on them (I'm sure one of our councillors will confirm this. By doing a stock transfer to HH it open the avenue for outside finances to be brought in, which I'm sure our councillors will also confirm.