Agenda item

To provide the Panel with an overview of housing associations in Haringey, the relationship between the Council and housing associations in the borough, and the sector’s main concerns.

Alan Benson, AD for Housing, introduced the report on this item which concerned housing associations in the Borough and the Council’s relationship with them. He said that, in Haringey, housing associations own 43% of the total social rented stock. Housing Associations own a total of 13,780 homes in Haringey, with 11,597 of those owned by just seven Housing Associations. In comparison, the Council owns 15,283 tenanted properties and is the freeholder of 4,975 leasehold properties. The Council maintains a list of all housing association properties including details of which housing association owns it and their contact information.

Alan Benson noted that housing associations broadly have the same concerns as other social landlords, such as housing management and Decent Homes Standards, but that there have recently been two main differences. Firstly, they have had no homelessness responsibilities, unlike the Council, and secondly they have become the main developer of new social housing, including through a cross-subsidy model of using private sale to subsidise social housing. He added that, over the last 15 years, the government has turned off some local authority controls over housing associations. The Housing and Planning Act 2016 had introduced the voluntary right to buy for housing association tenants, paid for by high value sale of Council properties, thereby creating a major schism between housing associations and Councils. He also said that housing associations typically have a higher proportion of properties at Decent Homes standards and higher customer satisfaction levels but that they do not usually do as well in terms of direct engagement with tenants when things go wrong.

In Haringey, there are a range of ways in which the Council engages with housing associations. There had been recent meetings between the Leader of the Council and the Chief Executives of the local housing associations and a regular quarterly briefing had also been set up between council officers and representatives of local housing associations. HfH also meet with housing association staff on a regular basis to discuss housing management issues. Officers therefore have a range of options for engaging with housing associations should Members require this, but the Council cannot instruct housing associations on what they must do.

Local resident, Nicky Small, then addressed the Panel about her experiences as a tenant of a local housing association in the Tottenham area of the Borough. She described herself as severely disabled and said that she had experienced problems with violent crime and anti-social behaviour outside of her property and pest control issues within the property. Southern Housing Group were responsible for the outside space around her property while Newlon Housing Trust own a number of the houses in the area, including her own property. A number of possible improvements to the outside spaces had been identified through discussions with the Police and with the local Neighbourhood Watch such as the blocking of alleyways, installation of gates and lighting and the felling of trees. However, she said that Southern Housing Group had not implemented these recommendations and that Haringey Council should take action to oblige Southern Housing Group, Newlon Housing Trust and private landlords to address these serious issues.

Cllr John Bevan then addressed the Panel commenting that, in his capacity as ward Councillor for the area for 17 years, he had had more dealings with this particular housing site than anywhere else and that it was particularly neglected. He said that, as Southern Housing Group owned very few properties in Haringey Borough, he was concerned that these properties might not receive sufficient attention in dealing with residents’ issues. The involvement of both Southern Housing Group and Newlon Housing Trust meant that there was a lot of confusion and duplication over responsibility for issues that residents were concerned about. Cllr Bevan said that the whole estate should be managed by just one housing association to simplify these issues and that Newlon Housing Trust would be his preference to do this.

Asked by Cllr Stone how this situation with two housing associations had arisen, Alan Benson said that it was likely that some Council tenants had exercised their right to buy and that the properties had later been acquired by the housing associations. Alan Benson added that Southern Housing Group own around 30,000 properties across the country, but only 24 properties in Haringey, and should therefore not be operating in the Borough as they had no incentive to manage them effectively. Newlon Housing Trust owns a large number of properties in the Borough however, and so it would make sense if these properties were transferred to them to manage. The Council has no levers to make this happen but could have a conversation with the housing associations to encourage this. Cllr Gordon requested that some strong action should be taken over the issues that Nicky Small and Cllr Bevan had raised and that Alan Benson should report back to the Panel on this. Alan Benson said that the Council usually tends not to take enforcement action against housing associations, which are partners of the Council, but that it has been done in the past and could be done again. Asked by Cllr Hare whether the 24 properties could be taken on and owned by the Council, Alan Benson said that the Council could look at this but that it may not be viable to acquire the properties due to the prices expected of them. Asked by Cllr Stone whether action could be taken to prevent such a situation, with ownership involving more than one housing association, from occurring again, Alan Benson said that he would look into this and provide a response to the Panel. (ACTION)

Cllr Moyeed said that he would explore the options available to the Panel on this issue and consider what action could be taken. (ACTION)