Blueline Jobs

Angry arm’s-length management organisations could be forced to stop decent homes work almost immediately, following a hard line government funding settlement.

The government revealed last week that it expects landlords to fund work to improve the last 10 per cent of non-decent homes themselves.

This means that ALMOs which have already completed 90 per cent or more of their decent homes programmes can expect to receive no further funding from April next year. They had anticipated spreading work over a longer period of time than originally planned to access the £1.6 billion decent homes funding available over the next four years.

One senior ALMO source said the abrupt end would see its contractors having to lay off staff. ‘It’s pretty desperate,’ he added.

Senior ALMO figures said the proposal put the future of many ALMOs in doubt because councils are now able to access funding for the first time, as Inside Housing revealed last week.

Paul Bridge, chief executive of Homes for Haringey, said: ‘This is big news for the ALMO movement because it raises the question “what is the point of the ALMO?”.’

Another source said there was real concern about job losses at his organisation as a result of the settlement. ‘That fear is very real,’ he added.

The government’s plans also mean social landlords will no longer have to obtain a two-star rating from the Audit Commission to access funding.

Grant Shapps confirmed that councils which still have a backlog of homes in need of improvements would be able to bid for funding for the first time.

A consultation paper published by the Homes and Communities Agency said all landlords will now have to bid for a share of the remaining funding.

Many landlords fear this will result in most tenants receiving a lower standard of work. They must choose between bidding to carry out full work on each home or adopting an ‘elemental’ approach where they update, for example, boilers and wiring but do not improve kitchens. This approach would mean more homes would count as being decent but would be of a lower quality than originally promised to tenants.

Gwyneth Taylor, policy director at the National Federation of Arm’s-Length Management Organisations, said the changes would mean a ‘very difficult time for ALMOs’.

Junior housing minister Andrew Stunell said: ‘At a time of unprecedented crisis we are still allocating £2.1 billion to decent homes over the next four years. This will deliver 150,000 decent homes over the period.’

Funding allocations will not be made until January or February 2011.