Whilst I am not a member of this scrutiny committee,
in my own ward, there are over 500 homes which South Essex Homes manage on the
council’s behalf and I was interested to hear the views of members on the
Community Services & Culture Scrutiny Committee.
Seven years ago, the decision was taken at the time to
set up South Essex Homes, an arms length management organisation (ALMO), which
was a requirement to access the Government’s decent homes standard funding. At
the time this was the right thing to do to access significant funding to
improve the council’s housing stock and was support by tenants in a public
ballot.
With the decent homes standard funding ceasing, I feel
that it is right and important that we have the debate now as to whether we
continue with SEH managing our housing stock or now is the right time to bring
the management back in house.
It was an interesting debate which lasted over 3 hours
and all members gave valuable contributions but interestingly, from comments
made by Cllr Longley, it would appear that the Lib Dem members of the committee
were under a three line whip!
It is important that any decision that is made, what
is best for tenants is at the heart of it. I am sure that my cabinet colleagues
want to ensure that we give the best possible service to council tenants at an
appropriate expense to taxpayers.
What was evident from the debate was even the
recognition from SEH themselves that if the council do decide to keep SEH as
the organisation to manage the housing stock that there does need to be reform
of the organisation to generate income and look share services where there is
clear duplication.
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