Ten years after stock transfer
Almost ten years after the first stock transfer Ashton Pioneer Homes (APH) has transformed St Peter’s ward in Tameside.
APH has proved that the so-called sink estates, with the right management, resident involvement and investment, can be turned around to places where people want to live and work. This housing association boasts almost 100% occupancy with empty property turn around times of less than three weeks and a very healthy demand for its housing stock. It achieved Decent Homes standard for all its properties in 2004 and has been reported by HQN as one of the top 18 performing housing associations based on Housing Corporation data.
The physical transformation is there for all to see with well-managed and maintained estates where residents take a pride in their involvement This is in stark contrast to 1999 where the odds against success seemed insurmountable, but the impossible was what APH was founded to achieve.
St Peter’s ward in Tameside was suffering in 1999. Though small, it faced a hideous concentration of socio-economic ailments born of multiple deprivations. These had taken a heavy toll on the neighbourhood. Out of a stock of little more than 900 properties, a third were empty and there was little demand for stock. Rent arrears were spiralling out of control. The place was unpopular, to put it mildly, with crime and antisocial behaviour at “epidemic proportions”.
The situation might have been difficult but it wasn’t a lost cause. Plenty of tenants and residents still believed in the area, through thick and thin, and they were essential allies in the long process of transforming the neighbourhood. By getting the basics right in terms of resident involvement in the decision making processes APH united and galvanised residents. This also helped to address security problems. A unique 24- hour CCTV system and 24-hour estate management presence has gone a long way to minimising anti-social behaviour. Indeed the system is used as a model of good practice to other housing associations.
“We’re still in the most disadvantaged ward in the borough,” Chief Executive Tony Berry said. “It’s one of the four per cent worst wards in the country, you don’t think in terms of deprivation in Tameside!”
While any one social landlord, regardless of its size, can’t solve the complex web of social ailments they nevertheless have a role to play. Again, that’s something APH has more than amply demonstrated as it heads towards it tenth anniversary next year.
“We’ve got involved in the whole network; the regeneration board, the local community partnerships, youth forums, because it’s not just about the bricks and mortar – it’s about the community needs,” Berry added.
“We’ve started to develop within the terraced houses across the road from our estates, in the west end of Ashton and also Holy Trinity, which is one of the large BME areas of the borough, to try and meet the needs of that community,” Berry explained. “Those needs are now higher than on our own estates. It used to be that our estates were a negative influence on the area, but now they are kind of the flagship for the sort of regeneration that can be done – so now we’re trying to use that good practice elsewhere.”
Indeed, APH has just finished building 16 large family homes in Holy Trinity and further such projects are planned for the year ahead.
This next phase of its operations is expanding its services outwards though its new services company Pioneer Homes Services Ltd (PHSL). It is clearly based on and built upon the methods it utilised to turn around the fortunes of St Peter’s ward in its earliest phases. Partnership working, the involvement of committed tenants and residents, and those services are spreading the good name of APH, and brandishing the achievements for all of Tameside to see.
