Your home your say consultation results
Homes owned by Leeds City Council are currently managed by three Arm’s Length Management Organisations (ALMOs). An ALMO is a company owned by the council but it is a self-governing organisation operating under a management agreement with the council. In summer 2012 we announced a review of the ALMOs and the way council housing in the city is managed.
We want every tenant to get a high quality service, and to make sure we have as much money as possible to invest in council homes in the future. We think the best way we can do this is to have one single organisation running the council housing service in Leeds.
We have just asked all 70,000 council tenants for their opinion about two options for how Council housing in Leeds should be managed in the future:
• a single company model (for example, a single ALMO) which keeps the local delivery structure and has stronger governance arrangements; or
• all services brought together under direct council control, keeping the local delivery structure and strengthening governance arrangements to include tenants and independent members.
We sent a consultation pack (available in the download section at the bottom of this page) and short survey to 70,000 tenants, and we held 41 public meetings, roadshows and mobile drop-in sessions across the city during an eight-week consultation.
What did tenants tell us?
In total 8,889 tenants completed the survey. A full breakdown of the results is available in the downloads section at the bottom of this page, but here are the headlines:
• 69% strongly agree / agree that the best way to make savings and deliver better and more consistent housing services is to move to a single organisation.
• 78% strongly agree / agree that within a single organisation there is still a need to deliver services through locally based teams.
• 61% would prefer all housing services to be provided by the Council compared to 21% preferring a single ALMO.
• 62% are very satisfied / fairly satisfied with their repairs or maintenance service.
• 78% strongly agree / agree that their housing management provider should have its own repairs and maintenance team along the East North East model.
• 83% feel ‘a great deal’ or ‘to some extent’ that it is important they can be involved in how their housing is run.
• 79% feel that they are ‘not very much’ or ‘not at all’ involved in how their housing is run currently.
• When asked how much influence they felt they had in how council housing is run, 73 % felt they had ‘not very much’ / ‘not at all’.
What happens next?
We consulted over two options because we believe both have significant strengths, and we remain convinced that both options would deliver service improvements and savings. This means tenants’ views play an important role in separating the options, and the consultation response offers a strong message about what you would prefer.
So the review team will be recommending a move to a new integrated housing service, managed by the Council. Leeds City Council’s Executive Board will consider this recommendation at its meeting on Wednesday 19 June.
If you are a tenant and what to get more involved in how your housing is run, call your community involvement team on:
Aire Valley Homes Leeds Community Involvement Team 0113 3781339
East North East Homes Leeds Community Involvement Team 2476101
West North West Homes Leeds community Involvement Team 2477180
