6 THE SENTINEL Monday January 7, 2013 SEN-eO1-S2 [P] SEN-eO1-S2 [P] THE SENTINEL Monday January 7, 2013 7NEWS NEWS

As new figures revealthe £1 billioninvestment needed inthe city’s councilhouses, AlexCampbell looks atwhere the money willbe spent – and how itwill be raised

City’s £1bn plan signals the return of the council house

NEW council houses could bebuilt as part of private housingestates to help generate morere n t .

Stoke-on-Trent City Councilis in talks with housingdevelopers over ‘joint venture’deals which would see theauthority sell its own landcheaply in exchange for a pro-portion of new estates being setaside for council housing.

The move would increaseincome from rent, and guar-antees offered by the developeron new homes would mean onlysmall increases to the main-tenance bill in the short-term.

The Sentinel reveals todayhow almost £1.2 billion willhave to be spent repairing andmaintaining homes over thenext 30 years after the counciltook on full responsibility forits houses.

It means the council is now incharge of raising its own moneyfor housing instead of sendingrent payments to the Govern-ment and receiving a grant inretur n.

Income from rent on housesand garages, which has to bespent on housing and is sep-arate from regular councilspending, will rise to £68.2 mil-lion in 2013/14.

But it must also use themoney to pay off its £163.6 mil-lion in debt and interest on its‘mor tg age’ from the Govern-ment, and a predicted rise inrent arrears triggered by bene-

fits cuts and ‘right to buy’deals reducing house

numbers will heap pres-sure on the budget.

The authority said ithas a solid businesscase for its housingstock and believes thenew control over itsrental income offersan unprecedentedopportunity to

invest in residents’ quality ofl i f e.

Councillor Janine Bridges,left, cabinet member for hous-ing, said: “No property is a liab-ility. What people have torecognise is that in this socialand economic climate, this is abig opportunity to improve ourhousing stock and make Stoke-on-Trent a place that peoplereally want to live.

“Now we have control we canimprove our hous-ing stock and investin the future.

“We have also gota lot of interest fromjoint venture com-panies interested inworking with us tobuild new housingstock to create extrarevenue from rents.

“I can tell you nowthat it won’t be thesame as it used to bewith large council-only housingestates. Those daysare gone. The cli-mate won’t wear it.

“But it will beselected develop-ments in sites of fiveacres or so where wewould go into jointventure with com-panies like Kier andother buildingd eve l o p e r s.

“That would bevirtually all incomeas they would beunder guarantee

and not require maintenance.”The council says it will also beable to unlock substantial Gov-ernment and energy firm grantfunding to invest in housing,including ongoing projects to

refit ageing former BritishIndustrial Steel properties withcutting edge energy efficien-c i e s.

Innovative schemes, such asthe £1 houses project in

Cobridge and Tunstall, willhelp lever in further fundingand bring empty propertiesback into use.

The council will targetinvestment in properties where

short-term spending can pre-vent properties slipping into acondition where they wouldneed major improvements inlater years – helping to reducethe overall bill.

Mrs Bridges added: “One pro-vider would not have been ableto buy our houses at the goingrate and they would have gonefor less than they are worth.

“This was to protect tenantswho tell us we provide a betterservice than social landlords,but also take advantage of aninvestment opportunity toimprove the standards of hous-ing by reinvesting rent backinto our housing to improve thecondition of the whole stock.”

Planned maintenance includ-ing new kitchens, boilers, bath-rooms and electric wiring willcost almost £548 million.

Surveyor Daniel Arnold, ofMeir, said: “Given the numberof council houses the bill isn’t asunreasonable as it may sound,but obviously there are going tobe other pressures on thatbudg et.

“Over 30 years they’d be look-ing at replacing every kit-chen at least once andevery boiler will prob-ably be replaced twice.T hat’s without thinkingabout wiring, walls, win-dows and paths. It’s a bigbu rd e n . ”

Dave Conway,right, leader ofthe oppositionCity Inde-p e n d e n t s,

who oversaw housing in his roleas a scrutiny committee chair-man, raised concerns aboutpeople not paying rent due tobedroom tax and council tax

benefit cuts.He said: “The housing

benefit is also going to godirectly to tenants and thatis going to create evenmore problems.

“With the rents con-tinuing to go up and

people beingasked to do

more of theirown repairsthe value of

THE city council’s housingstock survey reveals:■ Homes in Weston Coyneyhave the worst energyefficiency with bills costingabout £655 a year – £162higher than the city’s councilhouse average.■ Burslem Park has thebiggest share of homescovered by a £1.8 millionbudget for ‘catch-up’ repairs,with an average of £402needed at each property;■ Properties in Sneyd Greenwill need the most plannedmaintenance over 30 yearsbut homes in Great Chell andPackmoor need the mostspending in the next five years– an average of £5,316 foreach house;■ Surveyors found 356 healthand safety hazards likestructural problems; dampand mould; electrical wiringissues and danger of tenantsfalling over due to propertydesign. Most affectedproperties are in Hanford andTrentham, Blurton West andNewstead and Weston Coyney;■ More than £130 million willbe needed over the next 30years to replace kitchens; £65million will be spent on boilersand £51 million on windows;■ More than £18.6 million willbe spent on painting anddecorating;■ The half-a-billion plannedmaintenance costs showrecent investment in boilersand kitchens will keep costsbelow £11 million in the nextthree years but they willballoon to more than £90million from the sixth year ofthe business plan and £120million by year 16;■ Flats and bungalows needbetween 19 and 30 per centless work than houses. Homeswith the greatest maintenancecosts – an average of£32,237 – are largerterraces and detachedhouses built between1945 and 1965;■ Almost £130 millionwill be spent repairingempty properties leftunsuitable for newtenants.

Counting the costof home repairs

the houses could go down, andwe ’re asking people to pay morefor less. This is not what socialhousing is about.”

Councillor Abi Brown, Con-servative leader on the citycouncil, said: “If you look atwhat neighbouring councilshave done, selling housing stockto social landlords, and at thebacklog of maintenance onsome of our properties, you dohave to wonder whether theright decision was made – notjust for tenants but all of ourt a x p aye r s. ”

Epic Housing in Bentileewants the council to devolvecontrol of more houses andbuildings to target investmentin community benefits withouthurdles caused by council redt ap e.

Director Len Gibbs said: “Weneed to understand how neigh-bours in Stoke-on-Trent are thebuilding blocks of the city.

“We should look at this as anopportunity to work out howbetter collaboration with exist-ing organisations can useinvestment and housing stockto build a secure future forn e i g h b o u r h o o d s.

“Housing is not just to betreated as an investment butalso as part of a bigger picturein improving neighbourhoodsand their schooling, employ-ment opportunities and stabil-ising the population with theright mix of people.”

What do you think? Email us atletters@thesentinel.co.uk

‘People shouldn’t have to live like this. More cash needs to be spent’NOT enough is being done tobring the standard of councilhouses in the city up to scratch.That was the message comingfrom residents ofBentilee, as today’s survey wasrevealed.Alan Joinson, chairman of EastBentilee Residents Association ,aged 65, Chelmsford Drive, said:“I think that more should bespent to bring the homes up toan acceptable state.“The amount the council isspending is nothing compared tothe amount they’ve spent onother things, like the civic centre.“The fact that the council aredoing this by putting up people’srents is disgusting. Everyone isstruggling at the moment withbus fares going up and the priceof food going up and it’sridiculous that the council areputting the costs onto thetenants. They should havemoney in the reserve.”Twenty-eight-year-old JodieEdwards, who works in SheltonCare Residential Home, haslived on Beverley Drive for 15years.She said: “I have had problemswith getting the council to do

repairs. I have six-foot fencepanels on my drive that havefallen down, and they are verydangerous but it hasn't beendealt with, as it is not classed asa high priority.”Jodie has had problems with therear door of her property notopening, and says that when shetold the council, she wasinformed that in the event of afire, the family would have to

evacuate through the window. Onanother occasion her ceiling fellthrough below her bathroom.This was after she spent overtwo years fighting to replace herwet room with a bath for herchildren. Jodie said: “I had tothreaten them before anythingwas done. I am shocked by theamount of homes that do notmeet the decent homesstandard.”

‘A crucial piece of work’ – how experts assessed city’s homesCONSULTANTS examined 3,900properties at a cost of almost£120,000 to work out howmuch money the council willhave to spend.Yorkshire-based Michael DysonAssociates used a scientificformula to make sure its surveyof properties provides accurateresults relevant to the entirecouncil stock.Each home was measured

against health and safetyregulations, as well as theGovernment’s decent homescriteria.Stoke-on-Trent City Councilinitially refused to release theinformation over concerns itwould trigger an increase intenants demanding repairs butThe Sentinel successfullyappealed.Val Bourne, the council’s

assistant director of housingservices, said: “The housingstock survey is a crucial pieceof work because it provides theevidence to understand the costof maintaining and investing inthe council’s 19,000 propertiesover the next 30 years.“It will be used to developplanned maintenanceprogrammes in the most costeffective way.”

Council ward Totalspending

Total numberof properties

Average perproperty

£44,498,399£36,248,653£53,168,181£13,983,881£15,383,486£35,227,757£4,679,163£22,170,719£4,519,487£8,839,536£2,826,252£6,926,195£4,550,493£12,948,549£9,288,727£9,953,050£18,016,435£13,853,370£20,684,635

£8,056,118£1,303,694£3,165,000£22,454,319£9,846,131£666,043£22,413,611£4,768,690£29,917,167

£29,799,360£8,867,688£10,503,766£15,117,440£13,905,725£14,761,618£11,301,232£3,316,911

£547,931,481

1,5721,2581,660563526

1,269175698168367121

2481605023343736664827042557710675540023

768154

1,075990311

407538434482398122

19,141

£28,306.87£28,814.51£32,029.02£24,838.15£29,246.17£27,760.25£26,738.07£31,763.21£26,901.71

£24,085.93£23,357.45£27,928.21£28,440.58£25,793.92£27,810.56£26,683.78£27,051.70£28,741.43£29,381.58£31,592.62£16,931.09

£29,858.49£29,740.82£24,615.33£28,958.39£29,184.39£30,965.52£27,829.92£30,100.36£28,513.47£25,807.78£28,099.33£32,040.84£30,625.76£28,395.06£27,187.80

£28,626.06

How the figures stack up...

Abbey Hulton and TownsendBaddeleyBentilee and UbberleyBirches Head and Central Forest ParkBlurton EastBlurton West and NewsteadBoothen and OakhillBradeley and Chell HeathBroadway and Longton EastBurslem CentralBurslem ParkDresden and FlorenceEaton ParkEtruria and HanleyFenton EastFenton West and Mount PleasantFord Green and SmallthorneGoldenhill and SandyfordGreat Chell and PackmoorHanford and TrenthamHanley Park and SheltonHartshill and BasfordHollybush and Longton WestJoiner's SquareLightwood North and NormacotLittle Chell and StanfieldMeir HayMeir NorthMeir SouthMoorcroftPenkhull and StokeSandford HillSneyd GreenSpringfields and Trent ValeTunstallWeston CoyneyTotal

‘MORE SHOULD BE SPENT’: Chairman Alan Joinson.SECURE FUTURE: Len Gibbs, fromEpic Housing.