08 November 2002
Sheffield City Council, which was proposing to transfer 64,700 homes to a registered social landlord, has called off a ballot of tenants after a meeting with housing minister Lord Rooker.
Instead, the local authority will explore other options, including setting up an arm's-length management organisation (Almo) or transferring parts of its stock to housing associations.
Council leader Jan Wilson said the authority would wait for the outcome of the government's review of housing capital finance, which may lead to a relaxation of council borrowing restrictions. 'Whole stock transfer is not necessarily the right solution for a large and diverse city such as Sheffield,' she added.
Sheffield owns the largest number of houses among the 14 councils in the 2003/04 large scale voluntary transfer (LSVT) programme.
Solihull, which has 11,800 homes, called off its ballot two months ago.
The decisions by these two councils, combined with the negative ballot result in Birmingham earlier this year, shows the difficulty that ministers will have in meeting the decent homes target in urban areas through LSVTs.
John Perry, director of policy at the Chartered Institute of Housing, said he expected stock transfer to be 'downgraded' in the government's list of priorities. 'It will continue but at a slower pace,' he said. 'It will have to push more [money] into stock retention and Almos.'
Lord Rooker told the Commons urban affairs select committee on October 30 that 'at present' it looked as if the government would miss the decent homes target by 10%. About 150,000 homes would still need to be brought up to standard in 2010, he said.
Meanwhile, two of the first councils to set up Almos have received 'excellent' ratings from housing inspectors. Ashfield, in Nottinghamshire, and Derby both gained three stars and were told they had good prospects for further improvement.
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