One of Hull's most troubled estates may opt out of council control. Residents of the North Brandsholme estate are to be polled over whether tenants should go private and form their own housing association.
The process is being headed by URBAN – United Residents of Bransholme Area North – a volunteer body representing tenants on the 1850-property area. The estate suffers abandonment problems: 27% of its properties were void in April.

Residents in the past have expressed fears that the council has deliberately tried to run down the estate to clear the land for developers.

John Bostock, treasurer for URBAN said: "We're looking at taking it out of council control and transferring to a board run by the residents."

Tenants at North Bransholme last week received £29,000 of Neighbourhood Renewal Fund money to investigate the viability of the transfer.

This Wednesday it was due to receive official backing from the council to apply for £36,000 of ODPM funding to conduct further research, including testing tenants' opinions on whether they want to buy the estate from the council. Under section 16 of the 1986 Housing and Planning Act, tenants groups must get council support to apply for tenant empowerment grants from the ODPM.

The council backed the move, and denied it was embarrassed that the tenants wanted to opt out of council control.

A spokeswoman said: "We're very supportive of this because what we're seeing is the future being shaped by the residents that live in the estate."

An opt-out could also pay financial dividends for the council, which has this week stated its wishes to avoid a large-scale stock transfer or an arms-length management organisation to meet the decent homes standard.

Source

Housing Today