Somer Community Housing Trust celebrates its tenth
anniversary
31st March 2009
Residents and staff of Somer Community Housing Trust have
celebrated the first ten years since Bath and North East Somerset
Council transferred its homes to the housing association which it
set up, with a special reception at the Guildhall.
The event was on 31st March, the exact date the ‘stock transfer’
officially took place in 1999. Cllr David Bellotti, the Chair of
the Council, was the guest of honour at the event, hosted by the
Trust’s Chair, John Bader. Other guests included former board
members and staff, and key partners in the area. Together they
marked the contribution the Trust has made for its residents and
within Bath and North East Somerset, along with the huge investment
the Trust has made to improve its homes. They also cut a special
cake.
John Bader, Chair of Somer Community Housing Trust, said:
‘By any measure, what the Trust has achieved
in its first ten years is impressive. I am honoured to have been
the Chair for the last three and a half years and I have seen it go
from strength to strength. None of this would have happened but for
the forward thinking of a lot of people in the late 1990s and the
determination of the Trustees, residents and staff in the early
years of the Trust's existence. However, we are still an ambitious
organisation and intend that the next ten years will be just as
impressive.’
Managing Director, Angela Gascoigne, added:
‘As someone who has been with the Trust for
only a few months, I feel I can say without any bragging for my own
part, how proud I am of the wonderful work my colleagues have done
over the last decade. Residents, staff and board members have
worked very hard together to create something special – an
organisation which really does change lives.’
Councillor Vic Pritchard, Cabinet Member for Adult Social
Services and Housing, commented:
‘Bath and North East Somerset Council is
delighted to have worked in partnership with Somer Community
Housing Trust for the past ten years. The council is working hard
to realise its blueprint for the future of the district and one of
the priorities is to increase the availability of affordable
housing through close partnership with registered social
landlords.’
The transfer came about after Bath & North East Somerset
Council realised that it would not be able to invest enough money
in its 9,000 homes to bring them up to a decent standard, due to
government restrictions on raising the capital required. In 1996,
it started looking at its options and talking to tenants. The
favoured option was to transfer the homes to a housing association,
which the council would set up, which would be able to raise the
money required. After a six-month, official consultation, council
tenants were balloted in late 1998 and chose to go ahead with the
transfer.
The Trust made a number of promises at the time, which have all
been kept, or will be met by the end of 2009. Tenants’ rights would
stay broadly the same under the Trust as they were with the council
(including preserving council tenants’ right to buy their homes), a
limit on rent increases was guaranteed for the first five years
(and since then have followed a strict government formula), and
response times for repairs were kept the same.
The Trust also committed to involve residents at every level, to
give them a real say in how the Trust is run and influence how it
delivers its services. Residents can get involved in many different
ways, right up to board level (forty-five per cent of the board is
made up of tenant trustees), for example representing their
neighbours on Area Panels, joining the Consumer Panel, completing
surveys, or just attending residents’ fun days.
A significant improvement over the last ten years has been the
level of investment in residents’ homes - £154 million in total.
Over £112 million pounds has been spent on catch-up repairs and
refurbishment, including roofs, guttering, insulation, kitchens,
bathrooms, double-glazed windows, doors, entry phone systems, full
central heating systems, smoke detectors and more. At least £1.4
million was pledged to be spent on general maintenance each year;
this has risen to £2.5 million this year.
A number of homes of ‘non-traditional construction’ have, or
will be, refurbished or redeveloped. These include steel-framed
BISF homes, Wimpey No-Fines properties, and pre-cast reinforced
concrete (PRC homes). The Trust took possession of 435 PRC homes;
153 have been refurbished to date and the remainder are currently
being refurbished, while five areas in Keynsham and Bath have been
demolished to make way for brand-new homes. The first of these to
be completed is Caernarvon Road in Keynsham, where the first
tenants have already moved in.
The Trust has worked closely with the council throughout the ten
years, and it is represented on the Trust’s board. B&NES
Council manages the housing waiting list for the area, through a
choice-based lettings system called Homeseekers, where people can
bid for Trust homes. They are prioritised according to their
housing need.
The Trust is now looking forward to the next decade, and
developing a ‘2020 vision’. Residents have been outlining their
priorities for the future and what further improvements should be
made to their homes, at consultation events over the last year.