Rochdale Council is poised to create the country’s largest social housing mutual by converting its ALMO into a co-operative. The authority is waiting for housing minister Grant Shapps to approve the plans to transfer its 14,500 homes to the new organisation in April 2012. Gareth Swarbrick, chief executive of RBH, said transferring to a mutual rather than a traditional housing association would give Rochdale tenants greater control over the way their homes were run. This would reflect Rochdale’s history as the birthplace of the co-operative movement, he added. ‘The beauty of the mutual organisation is that it will bring a lot of tenants on board with their landlord. We have a very strong tradition of tenant involvement in the borough …and the co-operative movement started in Rochdale in the 1840s.’ The Cabinet Office is interested in using the transfer as an example of the government’s big society ideal in action, Mr Swarbrick added. Read more on Inside Housing.
