Last Friday Glasgow Housing Association took a major step forward in its commitment to hand control of the Borough’s one time Council housing directly to tenants.

Glasgow Housing Association (GHA) was the body to whom Glasgow Council transferred its 80,559 Council housing stock in 2003. With staff of 1.600, the GHA has in its five year life completed a £500 million improvement programme to bring its properties to decent standards.

In the background of this massive programme they have also been working very hard indeed to deliver some of the unique features of the agreement they entered into with Glasgow Council at the time of transfer. In particular they are the only Housing Association in Scotland to have committed to a Second Stage Transfer (SST) the purpose of which is to deliver control directly to local committees of tenants.

It has created a City-wide network of Local Housing Organisations (LHOs) managing homes on behalf of GHA, each of which has its own Management Committee made up of tenants. This gives tenants a greater say in what happens to their homes but eventually, through the community ownership process, GHAs housing stock is intended to pass into the hands of the Local Housing Committees.

Here tenants will be full control of their houses and rent money coming into each Committee's area of operation will be spent directly on that area. Spending will no longer be spread across different parts of the City – local areas will be targeted by local people for local priorities. Community ownership means local committees can set their own priorities, housing policies and investment programmes.

Last Friday’s decision was the first direct output in this process with the handing over of a total of 2.097 home to five local housing organisations whose Business Plans have met the necessary standard. The SST to them now goes to a ballot of the affected tenants to be held in November with an expectation the transfer itself will be effective from March next year.

The news story published by GHA last Friday making this announcement can be seen in full by clicking this link.

GHAs interesting Tenant Participation Strategy document can be read by clicking this link.

 The House of Commons Work and Pensions Committee yesterday published its report Valuing and Supporting Carers includes a number of recommendations aimed at providing additional support for the nearly 6 million men and women who provide carers support with a total estimated value of over £87 billion per year.

Recognising that carers are found amongst men and women of all ages records the fact that the peak age for caring is in the 45-69 age bracket with 17% of all men and 24% of all women being carers in the 50-59 age group. Among young people, over 165,000 aged 18 and under were carers in 2001 with 80% of them being in the 12-18 age group and 85% of the providing between 1 and 19 hours of care per week.

The report recognises that one in five carers gives up work to look after a family member, friend or neighbour and recent research by Carers UK found that carers had lost out on a average of £11,000 per year as a result of wither giving up work, reducing their hours or taking a more junior position. In evidence to the community the National Tistic Society pointed our that at £55 per week the Carers Allowance and the minimum qualifying level of £35 hours a week is equivalent to £1.44 an hour compared to a minimum wage of £5.52.

The Report goes on to identify the other circumstances which prevent carers finding a route out of the poverty which usually accompanies the role through increased earnings or training. Consequently the committee argues that Carer Support Allowance should be paid at the same rate as Job Seekers Allowance which would increase the income available to carers by £450 per year.

The full report can be read by clicking this link.

The leaders of RBH and the Council met in  a residential over Thursday and Friday last week to secure good working relationships as they move forward from the problems of last year around the appointment of a new RBH Chief Executive.

The Press Release issued today is printed in full here:

Rochdale Boroughwide Housing board members and senior officers have held a productive joint planning event with senior councillors and senior council officers to develop a shared vision of how the two organisations will work together to ensure excellent housing services are delivered for tenants and neighbourhoods across the borough are regenerated.

The 2-day event last week involved discussions between RBH and the council on a range of issues which will be crucial to the future success of both organisations - but the real focus was on agreeing a structure for ongoing dialogue and closer joint working.

Ian Agnew, the Chair of RBH’s Board said: “The discussions held last week were very positive and resulted in a joint commitment to work more closely together for the benefit of tenants and local communities. There is a clear recognition from the council that RBH is providing very good housing services and an understanding that we want to play a larger role in delivering social and physical regeneration programmes in neighbourhoods.”

Councillor Doreen Brophy-Lee , cabinet member for housing on Rochdale Borough Council, commented: “There is a real enthusiasm from RBH for its role in assisting the council to deliver its wider regeneration agenda and I really welcome that. We will now be working together to harness this enthusiasm so that real benefits are delivered for local communities.”

The photo - which can be enlarged byclicking on it - shows the Council's Executive Director Andy Zuntz, its Cabinet Member for Housing Councillor Doreen Brophy-Lee, RBH Chair Ian Agnew and Acting Managing Director Gareth Swarbrick.

A press release from the End Child Poverty Campaign states that 44% of young people from the richest, fifth of the population go to university compared to 10% of those from the fifth of the population living in the poorest households.

It draws on statistics showing at just 22 months, a child from a disadvantaged background begins to fall behind children from more comfortable ones and that everything which happens in the 13 years of education following that age widens rather than bridges that gulf.

In this country, the fifth richest in the world, we have three million children likely to be locked into a cycle of poverty they can’t escape and will pass down through the generations.

By the age of six, a less able child from a rich family is likely to overtake a more able child born into a poor family. As a teenager, the gap between a poor child’s ability and more wealthy child’s is even wider. Children receiving free school meals are half as likely to obtain the vital GSCEs as other children.

It is because of what the Campaign calls this immoral social injustice that it has organised a demonstration in Trafalgar Square on Saturday 4 October.

More information is available from the Campaign’s website by clicking this link.

The just-published survey by the national forum for financial inclusion, transact, found that social housing tenants were by far the greatest users of the services provided by its members and identified their major concerns.

The survey of transact's 1,300 organisations in membership was conducted between May and June this year using an online survey asking members to identify which financial exclusion issues were most important to them, how the credit crunch was affecting the people they worked with and how transact could better support their work.

Access to banking was the biggest financial exclusion issue identified with other top concerns being budgeting and door step lending.

The survey found since the credit crunch began:

• 75% of transact's members noted a rise in demand for debt advice services;
• 70% have seen lenders become more aggressive in pursuing debts;
• 61% have noted that more people are struggling to get access to a bank account;
• 58% believe that mortgage lenders are moving to repossess more quickly.

The change that members most wanted to see in the law was an interest rate cap on high interest lenders and tougher rules to combat irresponsible lending.

The nine page report can be read by clicking this link.