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Council scoops national award for housing innovation schemes
Reporter: Janice Barker
Date online: 18 March 2010
Council initiatives to help Oldham people with housing problems have been given national recognition.
The council has won the Liberal Democrat Council Group of the Year award for innovative housing schemes.
The award was handed over at the Liberal Democrat spring conference in Birmingham by Richard Kemp, Liberal Democrat leader of the Local Government Association.
It recognises programmes which include the mortgage rescue scheme for people struggling with payments, a downsizing scheme to free up larger family houses for people on the waiting list, and the Oldham Bond scheme, to help tenants into private rented homes who cannot raise the initial bond for their landlord.
Oldham Council leader, Councillor Howard Sykes, said: “It’s brilliant to gain national recognition.
“We have been working hard in partnership with First Choice Homes Oldham and the Citizens’ Advice Bureau to assist our citizens in the deepest recession in living memory, many of whom have struggled to make ends meet and keep their homes. Over 500 families have benefited from one or other of our programmes and not only are these schemes bringing peace of mind and stability to families in difficult financial situations, the kind of help we have been providing makes real economic sense as well.”
Comments
Interesting
"The council has won the Liberal Democrat Council Group of the Year award for innovative housing schemes."
Are we surprised?
Who else is going to give this lot an award?
If OMBC is so good & innovative why do they want to give the housing stock away when there are 'healthy options' for retaining it? Are FCHO tenants being told the truth?
is this really news?
liberals giving liberals awards? not much to be proud of really!
there hasnt been any innovative housing schemes in oldham yet?
Does anybody else find fedupoldhamer, JMTS and co really depressing? It doesn't matter what the story is - All they want to do is run Oldham down.
Is it politics? or do they get their kicks from being rude? They haven't got a good word to say.
Oldham is a good place to live. The real people I know don't talk like that.
Sorry Effie60 but with our current administration i never will have a good word to say about them. everything they seem to do is misinformed and completely wrong.
having been brought up all my life in oldham i have seen countless leaderships in this council that have slowly destroyed what was once a decent town, but these current liberals are messing things up in record quick time!
please correct me on anything good things they've done that i may have missed.
Effie heres a few bad things i can list just off the top on my head!
the millions wasted on the miller case, the substandard gritting over winter, underbudgeted chadderton sports centre, the poor conditions of the roads which seem to be negelcted, the rushed demolision of broadway library, the forced way the new latics ground is being pushed through despite opposition.
all these are bad for the town, all of which we pay for in our taxes.
now are you happy funding all of this?
oh and i totally forgot about the way ombc signed over oldham for the con charge! even though oldham was getting very little in the package!
oh we're paying for that failure too!
and even now with the loop line gone they havent ensured that alternative and adequate replacement services and infrastructure where put in place.
i could continue but i really would become depressed!
if you want to sit back and let them finish off whats left here then fine! you obviously dont care about oldham then!
Effie,
I do not run Oldham down. I am highly critical of the current administration which got a "red flag" in the Autumn for the poor public perception of the council. Since than things have got worse: Millergate enquiry botched, luxury awaydays, parking fine income lost, Band contests threatened, undue haste on the FCHO transfer ballot.
It's this administration that's running Oldham down in the eyes of its people. Isn't it alert to this?
Some serial commenters on here make it their life's work criticise everything the council does. I note that whenever there is something really positive involving children / schools/ leisure activites, you remain quiet. Why not compliment as well as criticise? Oldham is no worse than any of the other councils round here.
go on the deco! list some of these positive stories on children, schools & leisure activites.
then see if there is a direct or indirect connection to ombc.
lets see what you can come up with.
Have Your Say
What about all the complaints in recent times about the re-generation projects eg Derker?
By dramasingapore @ 18/03/2010 12:23:52