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.
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:
— Building modern new 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.
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.
— Improve satisfaction with neighbourhoods.
— 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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