Just four days ago, Colchester tenants voted yes to an ALMO. If the service gets past the inspectors, it can go ahead. What the council needs is a little expert advice – and who better to give it than Westminster's CityWest Homes, one of the country's most successful ALMOs? Mark Beveridge got the teams together.
Westminster and Colchester are both close to the South's high-demand epicentre, but they face very different housing issues. On the one hand, Westminster council faces problems particular to inner London – how to maintain 20 high-rise blocks and meet the increasingly diverse needs of an area where a third of the population is black and minority-ethnic. Colchester council, on the other hand, needs to find enough money to ensure that its 7000 homes, half of which are post-war semis, will hit the decent homes standard: at present, only a third do.

Yet the two authorities represent the leading edge and the newly signed-up rearguard of arm's-length management. Westminster's ALMO, CityWest Homes, is an old hand as far as the arm's-length option is concerned. Part of the first round, it has been managing the London borough's 22,000 homes since April 2002. The product of a Conservative council, the ALMO enjoys unequivocal political support. It also has one of the best records of any ALMO: last year, Audit Commission inspectors awarded it an "excellent" three-star rating. CityWest's performance has won it more than £61m to spend on its homes, all of which it aims to raise to the decent homes standard by 2006 – four years ahead of the government deadline.

In Colchester, tenants gave the go-ahead for ALMO just this week. It took almost 18 months to build up a political consensus in favour of arm's-length status. The town has a hung council, which does not make for straightforward decision-making. On Monday, though, after a three-week voting period, the council received the result it had been hoping for: 75% of tenants voted in favour of going ahead with the ALMO, based on a record turnout of more than 57%. Colchester's next obstacle will come when it gets inspected in February 2004. In order to access its conditional allocation of £12.2m for 2004/5, Colchester will have to improve on its current inspection score – from one star to two – and the process is likely to have become harder since round one. Colchester bid for £35m, but because of fierce competition,

If you’re confident of delivering good services, don’t wait for the inspectors to find it out – treat them as partners. Hiding the things you feel less confident about is likely to backfire 

Nigel Brooke, chief executive, Citywest

it seems likely that virtually all of the 14 councils that applied to join the third round will have had their bids drastically reduced.

Board or smorgasbord?

Although councils tend to form ALMOs because of short-term financial pressures, Michael Browne, a CityWest tenant and board member, says it is important for ALMOs to plan for the long term by getting the right mix of skills at board level. “We went through an interview process, which consisted of residents and council representatives interviewing the potential independent board members,” he says. “We tried to pick the kind of fields that were necessary – people who had experience in the building industry, housing law and finance. The process took about a month, after adverts were placed in the local press and ethnic papers.” Colchester set up a shadow board six months ago. A common problem is the conflict of interest that tends to affect board members who are residents. “You may have someone who, having joined the board, later decides that they want to continue representing the tenants,” says Nigel Brooke, chief executive at CityWest. The advice from Lorna Whitehorn, deputy director of corporate services at CityWest, is to “let the board members get to know each other and build up personal relationships”. She continues: “Unless you get everyone to gel as a board, members will come with their council member’s hat on or their resident’s hat on and then they become quite isolated. We’ve spent time with them to make sure they recognise that they recognise that their loyalty is to the board and each other.”

How to hit the decent homes standard

CityWest Homes has continued Westminster council’s record of contracting out services, such as repairs and maintenance. After the success of a £35m pilot partnering programme, CityWest struck a long-term deal with contractors to do all major works projects, worth £500m in February. But such a radical approach might not suit Colchester’s needs, says Keith Lindup, head of partnering at CityWest. “You can research what others are doing to meet the decent homes standard, but you can’t just pick something off the shelf,” he says. It’s important, he says, that Colchester plans how to spend the money, all being well with inspection. “Once you have found a solution that is right for you, and are serious about partnering, you need to identify someone who can champion that process. It’s then possible to move towards that target at a faster rate,” says Lindup. Colchester, in a variation on the partnering theme, has decided that services will be supplied through an integrated direct labour force, with support from Willmott Dixon’s Inspace partnering arm. This will allow Colchester to bring in specialists, such as surveyors or architects, when required. When it comes to actually doing the work, make sure tenants are consulted to minimise disruption, advises CityWest board member Michael Browne. “If you’ve got internal and external works, do them all in one go. Don’t come back in three months to do something else.”

Prepare to be inspected

With millions of pounds potentially riding on the Audit Commission’s opinion, it pays to take a more active role in the inspection process, advises Mary Goyder, CityWest’s director of corporate services. “A position statement telling the inspectors what to expect can be helpful,” she says. “There’s no formula, but the statement should say to the inspectors: ‘this is what you wanted us to improve on from the last inspection, and this is what has been done’”. Nigel Brooke, CityWest’s chief executive, recommends as much cooperation as possible with the inspectors: “If you’re confident of delivering good services, don’t wait for the inspectors to find it out themselves – treat them as partners,” he says. “Hiding the things you feel less confident about is likely to backfire.” CityWest did “dummy” inspections before the real thing. Consultants visited the ALMO twice and identified weaknesses in the repairs and lettings service that were remedied in time.

Constructive criticism

John Brett, chairman of Westminster’s housing panel, recommends a regularly updated tenants’ compact – an agreement between tenants and the council setting out service targets and expectations – as a tool for winning the trust of tenants and obtaining a good inspection score. “Some tenants used the opportunity of the ALMO inspection to kick back at Westminster. But if you have a tenants’ compact to refer to, you can show that their complaints are being addressed,” he says. “Having a strong compact helped to convince the inspectors that tenants were being consulted and listened to.”

Taking it with you

The formation of an ALMO should lead to a division of labour between the council and the new body: strategic planning such as the setting of long-term affordable housing targets should remain with the council, while all management issues should be dealt with by the ALMO. To help ensure that there are no potential conflicts, Janet Carter, CityWest’s director of finance, advises that any housing related funding, such as community warden money should move with the ALMO. Colchester, however, intends to leave control of the housing revenue account with the council. “The ALMO will get a management fee and service level agreements with the council that will safeguard the housing funding, says Phil Adams, Colchester’s head of housing.

You can’t do it without them

With tenants and board members at the centre of the switch to ALMO, Lorna Whitehorn, deputy director of corporate services at CityWest, warns that staff can feel neglected. “They are your main resource and you need to let them know how things will change and how they can take on the ethos of the new body,” she says. “Engage with their concerns over what will happen to their pensions and their conditions of service.”

Arm yourself

What Colchester learned
  • How to handle inspections: Colchester plans to follow CityWest’s example by being more proactive and, according to Phil Adams, Colchester’s head of housing, by trying to “manage the inspectors rather than the other way round”.
  • Getting the board relationships right: Colchester is to follow CityWest’s example by building up the board well before the organisation goes live.
  • An innovative approach to partnering and delivering decent homes: though culturally different, Colchester has taken on board CityWest’s partnering approach in drawing up its own plan for delivering decent homes.
Key advice from CityWest
  • Draw up a position statement before inspection. It acts as a guide for the inspectors and helps bring good practice to their attention.
  • Plan for the future. “The decent homes standard is not the be-all and end-all,” says Nigel Brooke. “Have the confidence to assume that you’ll get over hurdles like inspection and start planning for the long term, otherwise you’ll get over hurdles and be left wondering what to do next.”
  • Take care of staff and tenants. Make sure you have a tenants’ compact in place and remember to involve staff in the process of moving towards the ALMO.

Source

Housing Today