Housing transfer could bring £468m investment

AROUND £468 million could be invested in council housing over the next 30 years, councillors were told.

The money would be unlocked by transforming First Choice Homes Oldham (FCHO) into a housing association to maintain council houses.

Cabinet approved a report by the housing options panel, recommending the changes.

The panel concluded this would be the best way of maintaining and investing in council houses until 2038.

Its report states this would lead to a secure future for tenants and a major investment in homes to bring them to a better standard. There would be £166 million spent in the first 10 years, rising to £468 million over 30 years.

The proposal follows a stock condition survey of 3,000 tenants’ homes.

The review is needed because four years of government funding to meet the Decent Homes standard ended six months ago.

Oldham Council says it does not have enough money to manage or invest in homes in the future. It would need £98 million over five years just to keep the houses at a basic standard.

Tenants have already given their approval to the panel. But for the transfer to proceed, there has to be a ballot.

Councillor John McCann said the funding injection made the decision a no-brainer.

He added: “You either have money to do things to improve houses and maintain them or you are scrimping and saving to keep them basic.”

Councillor Dave Hibbert said Labour supported the FCHO bid but, to give it legitimacy, there should be more than one candidate to choose from.

But council-leader Howard Sykes said the matter had already been debated at length, tenants had chosen FCHO, and only one candidate is allowed on the ballot paper.