Hackney: resident experts

The position in which the council finds itself is a far cry from four years ago – when it was staring down the barrel of a £40m deficit in its budget for 2000/1.

Drastic cuts were the only way out. “Some of the street services such as bin collection suffered,” says Carswell. “And there was a stage when a third of the borough’s street lights were out, although it’s now just 3%.

“The housing side of it was slightly insulated from all that by the rules that protect the housing revenue account. However, where housing has suffered is that it didn’t do some of the strategic planning that other boroughs were doing five years ago. We’re playing catch-up.”

Now that things have improved since the dark days of 2000, Hackney has begun to face its longer-term problems. For housing, this means three priorities in the next 12 months.

The first of these is to become much more tenant-focused. “The process needs to be much more at their convenience,” says Carswell. “When they call up and say the grass isn’t cut, we make sure the grass is cut.”

Second is rent arrears. Hackney tenants currently owe about £15m. “This figure has been coming down, but not as fast as we’d have liked,” says Carswell.

Finally, there’s the decent homes standard. Of the council’s 23,000 homes, 76% fail the standard at present. A £320m investment is needed – £220m of which is going to have to come from the government.

Hackney had hoped to plug this gap by joining round four of the arm’s-length management programme. But in January the council unexpectedly dropped out (HT 16 January, page 11).

Carswell explains: “We weren’t ready. We didn’t have the data, we didn’t have the business case.

“The challenge we’ve set ourselves is ensuring that by the back end of 2005 our services are at a two-star level. Realistically, that has been a two-year project that we started in 2002, so what’s the point in going for a round-four ALMO only to have it slapped back in your face with the government saying ‘Well, your core service isn’t deliverable’?”

Hackney has a long way to go if it’s to meet the 2010 decent homes deadline but Carswell has a plan. As a starting point, it asked tenants which of the government’s three routes – stock transfer, ALMO or private finance initiative – they would prefer.

The borough’s housing is divided into five neighbourhoods and, ahead of a final decision on what vehicle will be best for which district, Hackney has primed contractors and suppliers to start work as soon as the money is in place.

The bulk of the initial efforts will be on external works because this is what tenants want, meaning new kitchens and bathrooms will have to wait until last.

“[Meeting the standard] will be tight and loaded on the back end of the programme, but it can be done if the resources are there. I think there are a lot of councils in London in the same position,” adds Carswell.

The next challenge looming on the horizon for Hackney is the flight of young skilled workers and families from the borough because they can’t afford to get on the property ladder. “People have no option but to get out, and we lose our social capital,” says Carswell. “These are people you want to keep around.

“The intermediate sector is crucial for us. What we need are family homes and affordability is crucial.”