ALMOs Should Be Scrapped For Companies That Can Borrow More

ALMOs should be scrapped and replaced with companies allowing councils to borrow against their housing stock, the chief of the National Housing Federation has said. The Treasury-imposed borrowing cap on local authorities means they are not able to borrow against their retained housing stock because it would increase the deficit on the national balance sheet. But David Orr, chief executive of the NHF, says that there are ways of getting round this cap that the Treasury was ‘interested’ in. He suggested replacing ALMOs – which manage council housing stock – with municipal housing companies that own the stock but are largely controlled by local authorities. Read more on Inside Housing.