First class

When Gateshead Council set up its ALMO a scaled-down housing department could have been on the cards but instead of stepping back it has continued to offer a first-class service and has even expanded its team

As Jackie Park, head of housing services, explains: “Normally the council sends the majority of housing-qualified staff to the ALMO, but we made a conscious decision that we still wanted a quality service from the council. If anything, that has grown over the last five years and I think we are far more pro-active now than we were.”

In fact both organisations have continued to thrive and the ALMO, The Gateshead Housing Company (TGHC), was awarded three stars with excellent prospects for improvement at its Audit Commission inspection in November 2008. The inspectorate commented on how TGHC operates at “an appropriate arm’s length arrangement with the council, where relationships are open and honest and it is free to organise and deliver services in the way it wants but with general oversight by the council.”

But while TGHC is responsible for the day-to-day maintenance of housing stock there are around 100 staff within the council dedicated to delivering its vision to provide “the best possible life chances for all through good quality affordable homes in thriving, inclusive and sustainable communities.”

The council offers a wide range of services including dealing with homelessness, supplying equipment and adaptations for disabled people, housing support, meeting people’s special needs and supporting vulnerable people. “Part of our service is geared towards people who have got particular problems, such as ex-offenders or young people leaving care and it is ensuring that they don’t just have accommodation but also the support to conduct that tenancy efficiently and effectively and to be able to sustain it,” says Park.

This support for residents includes a debt advice service, which has grown from strength to strength, since it was launched six years ago. Having started off with one debt adviser working as part of the community based services housing options team, there is now a whole team dedicated to helping residents of Gateshead with financial issues.

The in-house service is available free of charge to any residents regardless of circumstances or housing tenure and complements other services, such as homelessness prevention, homelessness, housing advice, tenancy support and domestic violence support.

The debt advice team uses various options to help Gateshead residents, such as negotiating directly with lenders to avoid court action under the mortgage rescue scheme, managing the loans to prevent repossession and evictions, income support, mortgage interest procedures, bankruptcy, advocacy in court, and to act as intermediaries for debt relief orders. Although not a statutory requirement the team is now collecting data and offering advice with regard to Civil Procedure Regulation 55 October 2009, which requires lenders to notify local authorities of repossessions – allowing the team to offer advice and assistance where appropriate. Additionally it is looking at ways to integrate with local banks and building societies to offer advice to people facing repossession and to look at joint working to prevent homelessness.

The debt advice team alone prevented 45 households from becoming homeless in 2008/2009 as well as managing over £3 million pounds of debt and gaining over £2.5 million extra benefits for residents. In the first six months of 2009 they prevented 52 households from becoming homeless, managed over £3.5 million and gained over £2.5 million demonstrating the increase in workload for the team. “We have had a lot of success,” says Park. “There was a case recently where someone was paying £1,000 a month for their mortgage and one of our staff renegotiated it so they were only paying £250.”

In addition to this Housing Services in conjunction with partner agencies last year prevented over 650 potential incidents of homelessness, reducing the social and economic cost to both the individual and the local authority.

The council also provides support for tenants in the form of equipment and adaptations, such as ramps, stairlifts and showers, for older residents and people who have disabilities – a service that has won it praise from the Audit Commission for its positive practice and has achieved 100 per cent customer satisfaction due to the speed with which work is carried out.

The average waiting time for major adaptations from approval to work beginning was 10.6 weeks in 2007/2008 but dropped to 8.5 weeks in 2008/2009. Various improvements have been carried out to streamline services such as providing stairlifts and level access showers, making the process more cost effective and less complicated.

Since the year 2000, Gateshead Council has been actively involved in supporting asylum seekers and people who have been granted refugee status and therefore given permission to remain in the UK.

Park says: “We work with people who have fled conflict, persecution and torture around the globe. Asylum seekers may be wrongly perceived by people as scroungers, but they have often been through horrific experiences, which have caused them to flee their home. Many of our clients have fled gross human rights abuses, mass killings and torture.”

Gateshead is part of a consortium with six other North East local authorities, which currently has a five-year contract with the Home Office.

It was the first consortium in the UK to make a decision to become involved in supporting asylum seekers, when it was announced that people were to be dispersed from London and the south coast, to areas of the country where there was more availability of housing, health care, and education. Many people arrive in the UK with no possessions other than the clothes on their back. Park said: “We don’t make any money from it we are trying to give people quality of life and to help them to establish a new life in this country. We endeavour to provide the support and security that we would wish to have, should we ever find ourselves in the situation of having to flee for our lives.”

She went on to say that asylum seekers had much to offer to the communities of Gateshead as in many cases they are highly skilled individuals such as qualified doctors, engineers and scientists.

The Home Office contract funds temporary housing for asylum seekers and a team of staff, including four support workers, who ensure that each asylum seeker has access to health care, and children have places in local schools. “The staff do a tremendous job. For example they accompany people on their first visit to the doctor’s surgery to make sure that they know where they are going and help them to become more independent over time,” says Park.

As well as working with The Gateshead Housing Company and local police to tackle any racist behaviour towards asylum seekers, the council works closely with organisations such as The Medical Foundation for victims of torture, which provides counselling support for victims of torture or rape, Crisis Skylight, which provides workshops in music, art, practical skills and English classes, and The Comfrey Project, which helps people to grow food on a local allotment.

The council encourages probationary police officers to spend time in the asylum team service to increase their awareness of issues and solutions – an approach praised by the police who aim to replicate it in other areas. It is not just extended housing services on offer from the council, it still gets involved on the bricks and mortar side and has a new build programme.

It has secured £3.6 million from the Government, which it will match fund through prudential borrowing, to build 63 new homes for older people – the first homes to be built by the council since 1986.

The properties will meet the housing need and aspirations of older residents as identified within the council’s Housing Strategy for Older People 2007-2012, which was drawn up following a review of their aspirations.

A review is also leading to the renovation of bedsit-style sheltered accommodation, which doesn’t meet current standards and there has been a focus on social interaction. “We didn’t just do a housing survey, we did a survey of aspirations to look at all older people’s needs and how they can be met, for example helping people, including owner-occupiers with repairs and recreational facilities,” says Park. “People want more choice. They want to live independently and want more out of life.”

Working with the Housing Company, the council has also secured additional funding for 94 family-sized houses – 81 for social rent and an additional 13 for intermediate market rent. They will be built on the site of out-dated prefabricated houses, which are to be demolished and replaced in phases.

“The properties were defective, so we consulted residents to find out what they wanted,” says Park. “One option would have been to do Decent Homes type refurbishments but the residents decided they would rather have new properties.”

Gateshead is keen to extend its new build programme further and has bid for funding for an additional 61 properties in the second round, although finding cash for future developments could be tricky as the council has already had to stump up a considerable sum from its own funds for the ongoing schemes.

“If anything the Government seems very keen for local authorities to bid for funding for new build,” says Park. “But because we are having to put a contribution in ourselves it is becoming more difficult to find the cash, however we are continuing to bid.”

Whatever the future brings Gateshead Council is proof that an ALMO and council can work side by side, each one complementing the services run by the other for the benefit of local residents.