Report from Fed Special Meeting

Held on September 28th 2005

Apologies Audrey Waterhouse, Ken Smith, Vicky Robertshaw, Liz Stephens, Carol Shaw, Christine Lates, Val Bennett, Angela Sykes.

Attendance List of those that attended included with this report.

A letter of resignation has been received from Stephen Plunkett thus leaving another vacancy on the management team. Letters from Ken and Audrey expressing interest in joining us have been accepted. A ballot was taken and counted. We welcome Ken back on the team.

1. Iris introduced Tom Miskell who had agreed to speak about the advantages of forming an alliance with Rossendale and Sheffield, also to tell us a bit more about choice based lettings

2. Tom said that his policy like David's was to be open and honest. He was prepared to answer questions on any housing issues

Growth plans: At transfer Pennine housing had 12,758 properties but lost 850 with the right to buy scheme. The council have had a percentage of all the money from these.

Another 20% of stock will have been lost by the end of year 5 due to demolition. In order to reap back some of the money Peninne decided to sell services. There is a shortage of housing staff, so when you have got good ones there has to be an incentive to keep them. We have had good reports from the audit as well as from the housing corporation and the input by tenants at various meetings with tenants from other parts of the country, when they have visited us to gain some information on transfer. We are becoming well known for how Pennine run their stock and the involvement which the tenants can have if they so wish. Sharing resources is a way of bringing money back in.

3. Are all demolitions necessary? There is no money to be made from them. No decision to demolish is taken lightly, it was said that more consultation should be done where demolition is possibly going to happen.

New build a percentage of these are given by builders for mixed occupancy some for sale some for rent this keeps the cost down.

4. Inappropriate mix of tenants in high rise flats was brought up. It is felt by some that old and young do not go together, mainly because of their life styles. Examples were given and Tom has said he will look into these. It was also said that some housing officers were not dealing with problems, and should be retrained. Tom agreed to take details at the end of the meeting.

5. Choice based lettings. Government legislation to be brought in by 2010. Something that many tenants have not heard about, or not understood. It is the way forward we are told. The scheme was introduced in Holland were homes are very rarely bought but rented. It is a fairer way of allocating properties, as there are no waiting lists as we know them now. Twenty seven pilot schemes are already running some quite close to Calderdale. Allocation of properties is done by a method called bidding. (not a popular phrase, misleading) Properties that become vacant will be advertised in an estate agent manner, in property shops, local news papers, maybe the internet, plus other means. Some properties will be aimed at certain people with specific needs, these will be apparent in the adverts. Priority will be given for three months to people with specific medical conditions, some that have special needs and the homeless, also to add to this list who through no fault of their own will be made homeless due to demolition, these groups of people will fall into what could be called the red category. The result of the bidding will be published and any other applicant can see why their application was not successful. The first thing to do though is to register.

The meeting closed at 9-10

The next full fed meeting will be held on the 26^th October 2005, Central library 7pm.