ALMOs call for increased community ownership of council housing

Ownership of council homes across England could be transferred to an organisation owned by the community and the local authority, a report by the National Federation of ALMOs has suggested.

The report said transferring ownership to a 'CoCo' – on a different basis to a current stock transfer – was one of three options that should be considered for the future.

The other options evaluated in the report are:

• A long-term management contract: this would be based on the ALMO model having a much longer contract and on the local authority having one-third rather than sole ownership of council properties
• A long-term management contract including transfer of some vacant properties or land. This would be similar to the previous model but with some limited transfer.

The first ALMOs were set up in 2002 to access the government’s Decent Homes funding programme. There are now 62 such organisations managing 900,000 homes – half of all council housing – across 61 local authorities. However, their future is in doubt because most have now completed their programmes.

The NFA argued that the organisations could continue to provide benefits to tenants and local authorities.

It said the new models were designed to “provide greater opportunities for tenant involvement in the running of council housing and to enable ALMOs to leverage off-balance sheet, private finance for the first time”.

The NFA suggested that the CoCo option was the most suitable for those ALMOs that require further investment to develop their communities.

The other two models would deliver less fundamental change and would be suited to those ALMOs which have completed their Decent Homes programme or only have a modest need for additional funding.

Alison Inman, NFA Chair, said: “This report is the culmination of many months of work looking into how the ALMO model could evolve beyond Decent Homes to remain attractive to tenants but also financially viable.

“The next stage will be for local authorities, tenants and the government to consider the implications of the new models and to scrutinise the three options. However, we are confident that ALMOs have a bright future and will continue to play an important role at the heart of our communities.”