Select Committee on Office of the Deputy Prime Minister: Housing, Planning, Local Government and the Regions Written Evidence


Memorandum by Oldham Rochdale Housing Market Renewal Pathfinder Project (EMP 07)

  The Committee has resolved to carry out an inquiry which follows up its predecessor Committee's report into Empty Homes published in 2002* with particular reference to the following issues:


(a)  The scope and scale of the initiatives proposed and underway in the Government's Housing Market Renewal Pathfinder areas and other areas with problems of empty homes

  Oldham and Rochdale were chosen as a Pathfinder area for housing market renewal because both boroughs include neighbourhoods where demand for homes is poor and could collapse if no action is taken. In other areas of the country where the housing market has collapsed, owners have been unable to sell their homes and many properties have been abandoned, leading to further decline.

  The challenge for Pathfinders is to match the supply of homes to the needs of local people now and in the future. At the same time, we need to improve the quality of life in local neighbourhoods to make them places where people choose to live and stay, rather than having no other option.

  Our aim is that in addition to high quality housing and living conditions, local people will have access, for example, to high quality jobs, to the education and training that will enable them to get the jobs, and to high quality healthcare and leisure opportunities. Everything we do needs to be aimed at bringing communities together, building on what unites people and breaking down barriers between them.

  Our initiatives are based on careful research and consideration of local information. They have been produced in consultation and partnership with the communities whose lives they will change. They fit in with other local, regional and national strategies for improving communities. Our track record of partnership for regeneration shows we can achieve our aims.

  Oldham and Rochdale have demonstrated the ability to improve the boroughs by using more than £6 million already made available to start acquiring sites, to involve the community in the development process, and to bring about practical improvements to the environment and to the security of empty homes.

  The scale of change we are proposing is huge. For example, over the next 15 years we will clear some 6,000 homes and replace them with 7,000 modern new homes. Achieving this major transformation will require a huge amount of investment, not only Housing Market Renewal funds but also of funding from other public agencies and from the private sector, much of it prompted by the catalyst of Housing Market Renewal action.

  Within Rochdale the areas of Wardleworth and Hamer and Langley have been identified as areas suffering from low demand, abandonment, over crowding and poor quality housing. In Oldham, Derker and Werneth/Freehold share the similar problems. The scale and scope of initiatives through HMR renewal pathfinder areas will be as follows:

WARDLEWORTH AND HAMER (ROCHDALE)

  The Wardleworth and Hamer HMR neighbourhood includes the distinct neighbourhoods of Wardleworth, Hamer, Mayfield, Cloverhall and Bellshill.

  The area is predominantly residential, with a population of approximately 9,500, housed in 2,820 properties. However, there is also a significant proportion of land in industrial/manufacturing use—a legacy of Rochdale's industrial past.

  Proposals for transformation include:

    —  Clearing outdated homes.

    —  Providing high quality, modern housing for sale and rent.

    —  Improving Council properties and refurbishing other homes.

    —  Making fundamental changes to the land use patterns in the area, including relocating some industry.

    —  Using the River Roch as a feature for more housing development, including the Dale Mill site.

    —  Promoting high quality design standards,

    —  Linking developments in the neighbourhood to the town centre,

    —  Improving the local environment, especially public spaces and the provision for people and vehicles.

    —  Transport Links.

LANGLEY (ROCHDALE)

  Langley is an estate of some 5,000 homes on the south-western periphery of Rochdale borough in the Middleton township. It was built as an overspill estate by Manchester City Council in the 1950s on garden city principles, with open spaces and trees.

  Originally all the homes were Council-owned but under the Right To Buy some have transferred to private ownership. In 2002, ownership of the Council homes transferred to Bowlee Park Housing Association.

  The estate is isolated from the wider borough and the township of Middleton both physically and in the perceptions of many local people.

  The problems faced by the area include low house prices and a very high proportion of empty homes, a poor environment, lack of housing choice and quality, an ageing population, high levels of benefit dependency, and negative external perception of the area.

  Proposals for transformation include:

    —  Clearing housing association and private homes.

    —  Building new high quality, modern homes for sale.

    —  Improving housing association homes.

    —  A range of inter-connected measures to raise quality of life, such as environmental and leisure improvements.

    —  Improving Langley's connections with the rest of the Rochdale borough.

DERKER (OLDHAM)

  Derker lies 1.8km north east of Oldham town centre and is home to 5,450 people. It contains 2,317 homes, 52% of which are owner-occupied, 30% are rented through First Choice Homes Oldham, and 14% are privately rented. Most of the private housing is terraced, much of it over 100 years old.

  Derker also contains a significant number of industrial premises, including some that are old and in poor condition. It has a railway station, an award-winning park, and four primary schools. The population includes a high percentage of under-14s. Derker has not previously benefited from any comprehensive regeneration initiatives.

  Proposals for transformation include:

    —  Clearing outdated homes.

    —  Building high quality, modern new homes.

    —  Improving Council homes and refurbishing other homes.

    —  Development of new local centre.

    —  Improving open spaces, and making better connections to Metrolink stations and adjacent areas.

WERNETH/FREEHOLD (OLDHAM)

  The Werneth/Freehold neighbourhood is a tightly-knit area of predominantly terraced housing bounded by Manchester Road to the east and the Oldham to Manchester railway line to the west.

  There are 1,883 properties in the area, including 1,300 terraced homes, around 300 Council homes, most of which are flats, and semi detached homes, particularly adjacent to the railway line.

  The population of the Werneth/Freehold area is 4,821 and consists of 1,883 households, 47% of which are owner- occupied, 21% are rented through First Choice Homes Oldham, 15% housing associations, and 17% are privately rented. The area has a very diverse ethnic mix of population, with 49% of white and 45% Asian heritage. The area is part of a Single Regeneration Budget programme, which ends in 2006.

  Proposals for transformation include:

    —  Clearing homes.

    —  Building modern new homes.

    —  Refurbishing homes.

    —  Redeveloping Hartford Mill.

    —  Improving open space and traffic management.

    —  Making better links with the proposed Metrolink station and adjacent areas.

  Empty homes can and do contribute to the destruction of neighbourhoods. But the empty house is just the symptom of other problems, such as quality of accommodation, housing need in the area, location, relative price to buying, poverty, reputation of area and available choice of housing. For Rochdale, the impact of empty properties is not generally considered to be great. Using Council Tax records, we can tell that there are 2,249 empty properties in the borough of Rochdale, with 568 of these properties being classed as "other properties" which are exempt from council tax for various reasons. For the remaining 1,681 properties, 1,137 properties have been empty for less than six months with the remaining 544 properties being vacant for more than six months. The overall number of empty properties in the borough as of 1 April 2004 stood at 2%.

  An initiative set up by Rochdale Council's Strategic Housing Services has been to establish a group known as the Corporate Empty Property Group (CEPG). The group's membership is open and includes representatives from the Private Sector Team, Building Control, Environmental Health, Planing and Regeneration, Housing Advice, the Renewal Area managers, the Council's Legal Team, Rochdale Housing Initiative and a consultant inspector.

  The problems that empty properties cause the local authority are broad and reach across planning and building control, environmental management, regeneration and renewal, private sector standards and enforcement and beyond this the police, fire brigade, youth service and quite possibly other services. Moreover the bringing back of empty properties into use feeds in to a national PI and enhances the councils Comprehensive Performance Assessment.

  Without a clear focus for work with empty properties, the possibility of many parts of the council taking disparate and uncoordinated action increases, conversely the opposite problem occurs as parts of the authority assume someone else is dealing with a property and nothing gets done. Empty properties are brought to the group and a decision about what actions are to be taken, and who will take those actions, is agreed upon. The group aims to develop and use the full array of options for dealing with empty properties. Working as a group the team has already managed the resolution of the problems associated with some empty properties.

  Rochdale in common with many neighbouring Authorities has a significant problem of poor quality housing stock, some of which is obsolete. For many homes, investment is required either in the property or the environment to stop them becoming unpopular and possibly empty, otherwise they may have little future value or use.

  The problems faced in Oldham and Rochdale are very different from areas such as Southern England where there is a chronic housing need, where the older stock has under gone gentrification (eg the South East) and where obsolete housing doesn't exist. Although empty homes are not a significant problem yet, Oldham and Rochdale do not always find it easy to attract end uses for its empty properties in the private sector. For instance, Registered Social Landlords are reluctant to invest in older stock because there is a risk of property values decreasing and the possibility of the property being difficult to let.

  In some inner urban neighbourhoods close to Rochdale and Oldham's town centres there are large numbers of old, small terraced houses that don't meet modern needs. At the same time and often in the same areas, there is a shortage of affordable larger properties with gardens and parking. Some of the poorer inner urban areas of Rochdale and Oldham are home to people of Asian heritage. Some of which are original immigrants, with increasing numbers of second and third generation descendants. Demand for homes in these areas is artificially maintained by the desire for communities with a common heritage to stay together. Adding to this pressure is the increase in the size of this section of the community and the increase in the number of new households being formed. Often these neighbourhoods are overcrowded and densely populated. Whilst nearby there are other neighbourhoods with high levels of empty homes. The problem is the lack of the right type and mix of housing in the right places.

  In areas of low demand, initiatives have been developed to provide community cohesion work. A good example of this is the Community Induction Project which has been quite successful in terms of re-housing BME groups in non traditional areas of Rochdale by providing support before and during re-housing and by carrying out a lot of preparatory work within the established neighbourhoods.

  With a high proportion of housing that is at worst obsolete and best in need of significant improvement, there is scope to see clearance as means to regenerate areas and to ensure that the targets for building on brownfield land are met before the properties are all empty and targeted by vandals. There are other potential tools available for the improvement of empty properties such as eg Empty Property Management Orders. However, the effectiveness of such powers is dimensioned by the fact that Rochdale does not necessarily have the resources to use such tools to the potential effectiveness in which they were originally conceived.

(b)  The commitment and contribution of all Government departments and other agencies to tackling the underlying causes of empty homes

    —  The Government has introduced VAT incentives to help with the renovation of empty properties. In 2001, zero-rated VAT on refurbishment of properties empty for more than 10 years and 5% on those empties for more than three years was introduced.

        Although these incentives are welcomed, the do not go far enough in terms of bringing empty properties back into use more immediately as housing markets can change at a more rapid rate than the timelines given.

    —  The ODPM has introduced a Best Value Performance Indicator for Local Authorities on the re-use of empty properties (BVPI 64). The number of private sector vacant dwellings that are returned into occupation or demolished during 2003-04 as a direct result of action by the local authority.

        Although this is an annual measure, we believe that quarterly monitoring will help identify empty properties quicker and allow positive action on such properties to be taken before some properties become blighted.

    —  The ODPM has issued "Guidance on bringing empty properties back into use" and the guidance document "Empty Property: Unlocking the Potential—A Case for Action". This is a comprehensive guidance on bringing empty properties back into use.

        There is currently no duty on local authorities (LAs) to produce an empty property strategy. A dedicated empty property office and an empty property strategy should be set as a requirement using the guidance document quoted above.

        Within Oldham Council, Rochdale Council and their ALMOs First Choice Homes Oldham and Rochdale Boroughwide Housing, we have managed to contain the low demand problem in relation to the local authority stock via a number of initiatives eg The Intensive Housing Project and the select-a-home project which fast tracked applications for low demand properties where no points were required. These initiatives have kept the number of empty properties to reasonable levels and contained abandonment.

    —  Local Government Act 2003, Section 85 allows authorities to use information obtained for Council Tax purposes to be used for the purpose of identifying vacant dwellings and for taking steps to bring empty homes back into use.

        Oldham and Rochdale currently utilise council tax data to monitor empty properties within the borough. Although such a data-set is not 100% conclusive, it is useful in helping to maintain and monitor long term empty properties within the borough and highlights such properties in high demand HMR areas were there is a need of such properties.

    —  A discretionary power for councils to change the discount on second homes and long term empty properties became available from 18 December 2003 (Local Government Act 2003). The power is now available for councils to decide whether to reduce the council tax discount currently offered to second homes and long-term empty properties. Some councils have from April 2004 imposed homeowners to pay above 50% Council Tax on their second homes.

        Rochdale has a very small percentage of empty homes and vacant dwellings within the borough. This borough is one of 88 areas in the country identified as experiencing multiple deprivation and qualifying for Neighbourhood Renewal. Given the low percentage of empty properties coupled with income streams being below national averages it was decided that imposing Council Tax rates above 50% for second homes was not worthwhile in terms of bringing those properties back into use or long term financial gain for the council.

    —  The new Housing Act has seen the introduction of Empty Homes Management Orders. The intention would be to allow local authorities to purchase a lease on a property where the owner will not co-operate in bringing the property back into use voluntarily. The property would then be let for social housing.

        Rochdale acknowledges and welcomes the new Housing Act and the CEPG are continually looking at ways of effectively using such powers.

    —  A Private Sector Leasing Scheme is a facility for a housing association (HA) to be funded to buy a lease (for a period of two to 29 years) on a private property. LA Empty Property Officer will identify an empty property, contact the owner to tell them of the scheme and, if they are interested, will notify the HA. The HA will purchase a lease and use the property to house tenants from the council waiting list. The HA will pay the owner a guaranteed rent throughout the period of the lease. The property is used to house tenants from the HA's or LA's waiting list.

        The North is not traditionally good at dealing with leasing deals as the South, it is perceived to be to risky. In order to promote such a scheme within Rochdale and the North West, the leasing agreement needs to be underpinned by a public sector management agreement underwritten by a loss subsidy scheme.

    —  Each LA should have written a new Empty Property Grant policy. A LA has the ability to give grants, loans and even mortgages to owners of empty properties to enable them to refurbish them and bring them back into use.

        Historically, Rochdale Council has intervened in the private sector housing market and up until the Regulatory Reform Order 2002 had incrementally developed a private sector policy based on the needs of that sector. The Council's approach in this respect was to implement progressive, innovative and sustainable strategies, including substantial clearance programmes, area based action and individual grants policies which played an important role in protecting the local housing market. These policies have in part, we believe, contributed to the fact that Rochdale has not suffered abandonment and low demand to the same extent as other similar authorities in the North West.

        With the introduction of the Regulatory Reform Order in 2002 Rochdale Council reviewed its Private Sector Housing policies in order to gain full advantage from the freedoms and flexibilities it introduced. Staff from all sections of Private Sector Housing carried out a review of the options in relation to the private sector housing policy. The review included debates on the need to move away from a grants policy and to develop products like equity release which helps people to help themselves and ultimately allow funds to be recycled.

    —  Finally, the government has not found effective ways of tackling rogue and incompetent landlords which can lead to and perpetuate the problems found and associated with empty homes. Greater monitoring, more community empowerment and a better sustained housing market can lead to tackling the underlying causes of empty homes.

(c)  The availability of resources outside the pathfinder areas and the development of strategies to deal with weak housing markets

  There are not many resources available outside the pathfinder areas to deal with or develop strategies to combat weak housing markets. The New Deal for Communities funding is not directed at or works with pathfinder areas.

  Clear commitment and working protocols are needed amongst local and regional bodies in order to deal with effective regional strategies to stabilise and strengthen weak housing markets.

  The following initiatives and developments should be put in place in order to develop strategies to deal with weak housing markets by Regional Planning Boards:

    —  A Master Plan for the Region.

    —  Housing Needs and Affordability Studies.

    —  Sustainability Models.

  Rochdale Council is trying to maximise what small resources it has through its CEPG. Through the development of national and regional strategies, clearly a more structured approach outside the remit of local governance is required in order to improve the accessibility of resources being made available to pathfinder areas.


(d)  The dissemination of good practice, innovation and co-ordinated interventions within and outside pathfinder areas

  Within the pathfinder areas, establishing cross networked teams such as the CEP group has allowed a more co-ordinated corporate approach to be made by RMBC. With a single approach and vision from all teams involved, a more established, organised and structured advance to the problem of empty properties has been established. RMBC has been generally good at innovation and co-ordination. For example, the Heywood Partnership has led to successful community empowerment, topped with cutting edge design (Dale Mill Project—high design specs), supported by ground breaking research which has allowed RMBC to make good, informed decisions which have worked well within the borough. Bringing together these principles and carrying forward such good practice in all we do will only serve to continue to build upon Rochdale's success.

  So far, RMBC has not seen any projects, which disseminate good practice, or co-ordination outside the pathfinder areas.

(e) Whether Councils have sufficient powers to tackle the problem of empty homes in their areas

  Local councils do have effective powers to tackle the problem of empty properties. This has further been strengthened by the new Housing Act, which has given LA's the powers to obtain Empty Property Management Orders. However, there is limited money and resources available within the council to use such powers. More incentives directed at the council are needed. For example, financial benefits wielded from CPO properties going directly back into the area rather than the treasury would allow the council to employ dedicated empty property officers who could use the powers given to them more effectively.

(f) The priority given to the demolition of homes and the consideration given to effective methods of refurbishment

  Specific and detailed delivery plans for 2004-05 have been developed for neighbourhoods in Oldham and Rochdale, which aim in general terms to:

    —  Improve property values.

    —  Reduce turnover.

    —  Improve satisfaction with neighbourhoods.

    —  Reduce segregation.

    —  Improve Quality of Life.

  These aims will be achieved by:

    —  Clearing surplus and obsolete housing.

    —  Making environmental improvements.

    —  Refurbishing existing properties.

    —  Funding new developments.

  East Central Rochdale (ECR) is currently a mixed area adjacent to the town centre consisting of private terraced housing, medium sized social rented estates and buildings used for retail, leisure, commerce and industry. The local housing market is typified by the enigma of some unpopular social rented estates existing next door to high-demand, but poor quality private sector housing areas. The latter housing market being sustained by the largely Asian BME population that first settled in the town in the 1950s and 60s to work in the textile industry.

  Over the last 25 years the Council has invested in the area via its area based renewal strategies and prevented the collapse of the housing market. However there has never been sufficient funds to bring about the structural change required to create an urban neighbourhood sustainable in the long term.

  There are large scale plans to transform the neighbourhood including:

    —  Clearance of 168* outdates homes.

    *The numbers quoted are subject to change as the delivery plans develop.

  The Council recognises that the clearance of individual's homes is a particularly sensitive issue for those individuals involved and has adopted inclusive strategies to deal with these issues. Meetings have and will be held to all residents affected by clearance and a property adviser has been appointed to assist those residents affected to access alternative housing that most appropriately meets their needs.

  Whilst this is a difficult process it is important to note that it will not be possible to achieve the fundamental changes to transform neighbourhoods without a programme of strategic housing clearance, which will inevitably include some individual properties that are not in poor condition.

  Another major part of the ECR proposals is the review of land-use patterns in the area. Large parts of ECR are currently occupied by industrial businesses that are operating from apparently outdated and outworn properties and creating amenity problems for nearby residents. The intention is to assist these businesses to find alternative, modern premises, which would relieve these problems. Also, when linked with the housing clearance programme this project will help assemble large sites for residential development.

  Since it is no longer feasible to refurbish such properties, priorities are placed on demolishing, and new build. A key strategic site has already been acquired for new housing, the Dale Mill site and work is taking place to acquire the Arkwright Mill site. A masterplan has been developed for approximately 80 new homes on these sites. This provides layout plans and house types for the proposed new housing development. It is intended that the housing development will be a mixed tenure site with the majority of housing being available for owner occupiers to meet the aspiration of local people identified through to consultation process.

  Langley is an estate of some 5,000 homes in Middleton Township. It was developed as an overspill estate for the clearance programme in Manchester in the 1950s. The stock was predominantly three bedroom houses to rent. By the 1980s demand for rented family accommodation had reduced and by 2000 the estate had almost 1,000 empty properties. A variety of options to address this problem were considered by Manchester City Council with the favoured option being stock transfer which following a successful ballot in 2001, took place in 2002 with ownership transferred to Bowlee Park Housing Association.

  The vision for the neighbourhood is "To Change Langley Forever".

  This will be achieved by:

    —  Clearance of 971 HA and private homes.

    —  Bringing the retained HA stock up to the decent standard.

    —  Building 1302 new high quality, modern homes for sale.

    —  Introducing a range of connected measures to raise the quality of life, such as environmental and leisure improvements.

    —  Improve Langley's connections with the rest of the Borough.

(g) The availability of the necessary skills and training to support staff promoting projects to tackle the needs of areas with weak housing markets

  Within the Northwest, it has long been established that there is a shortage of staff with the necessary skills and expertise required to tackle such projects. Unfortunately there are not enough suitably skilled people to take forward such tasks, as there is a scarcity of people who have a diverse range of housing skills required. One way RMBC is trying to combat this shortage is by delivering training programmes to staff which will enable them to obtain the necessary skills to carry out and promote work within this field in the very near future. For example, we have employed an empty property support officer who will eventually work themselves up to become an empty property officer. Traditionally this post has been hard to fill due to not being able to find people with necessary skills to carry out the objectives of the post.

(h) How housing market renewal is addressed in other strategies including local and regional plans and other regeneration programmes

  Perhaps the most fundamental factor in relation to Housing and the Housing Strategy in Oldham and Rochdale has been the Boroughs' inclusion, in one of the Government's nine Housing Market Renewal Pathfinders identified in the Sustainable Communities Plan.

  Over the past two years Oldham and Rochdale have been working closely together to produce the Housing Market Renewal prospectus, which was approved by the ODPM in March 2004. The development of the prospectus (Partners in Action) involved substantial cross boundary partnership working by the two boroughs.

  Partners in Action have worked together to develop the following vision for the Housing Market Renewal fund Pathfinder that will bring benefits to the two boroughs that will last for generations.


Rochdale and Oldham will be thriving, playing a new dynamic role in the conurbation.

Modern quality housing, bustling town centres, modern leisure facilities and access to superb countryside that surrounds us, will transform our lifestyle.

We will be better off in all sorts of ways. We have the skills and the access to a wide range of modern jobs: and our lives will be enriched with our unique culture and diversity.

Oldham and Rochdale townscapes will be exemplars of good urban design.

People will hear about us and think, "that sounds like a great place to live."

Nothing less than fundamental change will do.

  Oldham and Rochdale were chosen as a Pathfinder area because both boroughs include neighbourhoods that are vulnerable to housing market failure if no action is taken. The Pathfinder area is made up of 31 local neighbourhoods within geographical boundaries established by the ODPM each of which has been subject to analysis at the neighbourhood level.

  The main issues to be addressed in the housing market relate to weakness and dysfunction. The challenge for the Pathfinder is to match the supply of homes to the needs of local people now and in the future. In addition to this it will be necessary to improve the quality of life in neighbourhoods to make them places where people choose to live and stay rather than having no other option.

  In order to address these issues Partners in Action have established the following aim:


"to deliver a transformation in the housing markets in our area that will create sustainable communities and lead to greater cohesion."

  This aim will be achieved by a combination of a programme of physical intervention in neighbourhoods susceptible to decline and a series of strategic programmes that will see step change improvements to neighbourhoods in both boroughs over the next 15 years. The intention is to make those neighbourhoods identified as vulnerable to decline places where people choose to live and stay whatever their background or housing needs. This will be achieved through the development of comprehensive Neighbourhood Plans based on Neighbourhood Profiles and other research and consultation. Housing Market Renewal funding will complement other activity and funding within these neighbourhoods.

  In establishing the joint vision for the future of the two Boroughs it became apparent that there was a need to set a framework for the physical developments that will complement the respective community strategies. Consequently, a Master planning process of the built and natural environment was commissioned both jointly and at individual Borough level. Although this master plan is still in development, it is envisaged that it will nest within regional, local and neighbourhood based strategic plans.


(i)   How Pathfinders are seeking to involve the private sector in their long term planning and programmes.

  We have a range of programmes in which we are trying to involve the Private Sector on long term planning programmes. Below is a list of ways in which we are involving the private sector.

    —  Rochdale Housing Initiative—RHI represents the interests of housing organisations in both the private and public sectors.

    —  Public Private Partnership—Progress towards a possible large-scale partnership between Rochdale Council and a private company has been given the go ahead by the council. Once the public/private partnership process is finalised a very high priority for the partnership will be the regeneration of the borough.

    —  Procurement Project—Rochdale Council has a long-standing commitment to effective procurement and the achievement of value for money for the citizens of Rochdale. Tested procurement and purchasing arrangements are in place which follow council policy and best practice and provide a high level of control for the £80 million annual purchasing spend with external providers. This again is pro-actively seeking to involve the private sector in planning the vision and future of Rochdale. This is being achieved by increasingly procuring services to the private sector whilst delivering best value for money.

    —  Landlord Accreditation Programme—Landlords will qualify to join the scheme if each of their properties is of a decent standard, is in a reasonable state of repair, has a gas safety certificate, and is subject to a tenancy agreement. The scheme is based on a successful pilot project that was started in the Derker neighborhood of Oldham last year. This again will raise the quality and standard of homes within Rochdale and Oldham. This is a way of involving the Private Sector in contributing to making the boroughs a better place to live.

    —  Tenant Empowerment—Within the Housing Services Department the Tenant Participation Unit is responsible for promoting and supporting tenant participation generally and also, for consulting tenants on the capital programme and capital works on individual estates. developing and supporting the overall Tenant Participation Compacts. Ways in which we are hoping to involve the Private Sector are by:

        1.  developing, agreeing and supporting housing compacts with individual associations and    eventually all private landlords;

        2.  providing advice, information, funding, training and other support to new and existing RSLs;

        3.  support for establishing and developing community bases and centres for tenants groups;

        4.  formal liaison and recognition with the Private Sector to support them in meeting reasonable    standards;

        5.  consulting RSLs on housing policy;

        6.  dissemination of other related information;

        7.  work on policy issues relating to quality of life issues; and

        8.  support to the voluntary sector, including involvement in funding agreements.

    —  Private Sector Forum—The Private Sector Forum undertakes empty property surveys and there has also been major surveys on tenant satisfaction. The Private Sector Forum has structures in place for regular consultation with local interest groups. These include residents groups on regeneration schemes, the private sector forum with landlords; estate based tenants groups and compacts.


 
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