ALMO Could Axe 80 Jobs In Restructure

Your Homes Newcastle (YHN), which manages 26,700 homes on behalf of Newcastle City Council, hopes to save £2.3m through cuts to staff and changes to services. The proposed restructure will mean residents access more of the landlord’s services online. Staff and managers at YHN in its finance and commercial, customer services and assets and development departments are being consulted on the changes. It is the first major review of the ALMO since it was formed in 2004. A new executive team has joined the organisation in the past year. YHN also underwent a board restructure during the summer to eliminate places reserved for tenants. Read more on Inside Housing.

ALMOs Have ‘Aspirations’ To Build New Homes

Getting all sections of the housing sector to build is one of the main aims of the Housing White Paper unveiled by government. Not to be left behind, many ALMOs are embarking on build programmes in a bid to improve their local area. Your Homes Newcastle are hoping to build just over 400 units by 2020/2021 and have said that despite policy setbacks, such as the rent reduction and impacts of the Housing and Planning Act, they have found ways to get funding. The largest developing ALMO is Nottingham City Homes (NCH) and they are looking to further that by building over 900 homes to improve Nottingham. Read more on 24housing.

ALMO CEO Stands Down In Restructure

The chief executive of Your Homes Newcastle (YHN) is to step down after 10 years at the helm of the city’s housing provider. John Lee will leave at the end of the year after heading up the arms-length management organisation (Almo), owned by Newcastle City Council, since it was set up in 2004. Mr Lee had been seconded as a business expert to the council in August to help it become more commercially focused, but it is understood he has now accepted a voluntary redundancy arrangement. It comes following a YHN board meeting in which a restructure was agreed and amid housing reforms and continuing central government austerity. Also, in a significant change to the management of the city’s housing, “financial and strategic accountability” for the housing revenue account has been passed back to the city council. Read more on the Newcastle Chronicle website.

Third Of All Newcastle Households Hit By Bedroom Tax and Welfare Reforms

A least one third of Newcastle's households have been hit by the coalition's raft of welfare reforms that came in last April, an ALMO's research has revealed.  In particular, the controversial bedroom tax has had a significant impact on the city's social housing tenants. Your Homes Newcastle, the ALMO that runs Newcastle City Council's housing stock, says that 4,703 of its tenants have been affected by the bedroom tax.  Recent figures show that 60% of those affected by the bedroom tax in the city are now in arrears.  The advent of the tax has seen the number of empty two and three-bed flats tripling from 47 in February last year to 142 in February this year, as more and more tenants are forced out of larger properties. Read more on 24dash.

Tenants Urged To Take Part in Home Swap Events

Council tenants in Newcastle affected by the bedroom tax are being invited to take part in a series of home swap events across the city.  During the 'Swap it!' events, tenants of Your Homes Newcastle will submit estate agent style paperwork relating to their properties, wear stickers demonstrating the type of house they currently live in and the type of house they'd like to move to and boards will show all of those available according to the number of bedrooms.

The events are aimed at people on the mutual exchange register who are looking to move either because they need a bigger home or are affected by the bedroom tax. Read more on 24dash.

As Bedroom Tax Bites Housing Arrears in Newcastle Soar

The bedroom tax has left Newcastle facing more than £250,000 of debt just weeks after hard-hit families were told to pay up. Across the city new figures show council tenants have from day one been unable to find the extra money needed as the Government cuts housing benefits for those with spare rooms.

In just six weeks the figure stood at £200,000-worth of new arrears for housing managers at Your Homes Newcastle. Continuing unemployment means overall rent arrears are more than half a million pounds higher than the housing provider would expect, and the figures are getting higher.  The bill could rise to £2m over a year.  Read more on the Newcastle Evening Chronicle website.

Just 50 One-Bed Homes for 7,000 Hit by Bedroom Tax In One City

The bedroom tax will strip 7,000 households in one city of vital benefits, despite there being just 50 one-bed homes available to downsize to.  The research, in Newcastle, reveals 5,379 council tenants there have one spare room.  The plan means they will lose 14% of their housing benefit, worth £8.40 a week on average.  Another 1,258 households with two spare bedrooms face a massive 25% cut, the equivalent of £15 a week, or £780 a year.  Yet Your Homes Newcastle, which looks after council housing stock, has just 50 one-bedroom homes available, even if those 6,637 families affected were able or wanted to move. And there are thousands more Housing Association residents in the city, who could also be hit when the changes come in next month. Read more on the Daily Mirror website.

ALMO Flood Tenants Cannot Return

Tenants of an ALMO who were evacuated from their homes due to damage from flooding cannot return to their flats for ‘several months’.  Your Homes Newcastle had to evacuate two blocks of 18 flats at Hareside Walk and Hareside Close in Newburn outside Newcastle after the foundations of a neighbouring apartment block were washed away.  A burst culvert meant that privately owned Spencer Court was evacuated for fear it would collapse. The 31,000-home ALMO said that the access road and adjacent land is unsafe, and any more extreme weather could cause further problems.  YHN said tenants will be unable to access their homes whilst work is underway to repair the culvert and stabilise the land around the flats – and this ‘may take several months to complete’.  Read more on the YHN website.