Nottingham City Homes Provisionally Recruits New Chief Executive

NCH have provisionally recruited a new Chief Executive, to take over from Chris Langstaff when he retires in October. The offer has been made to Nick Murphy, Executive Director for Housing at Southampton City Council. In his role in Southampton, Nick covered a range of customer facing services including housing and property services, environmental services, leisure and culture, community safety and community involvement. Nick was also part of Southampton's corporate leadership and management team. He successfully delivered key housing and asset management strategies and achieved the Decent Homes standard for a stock of more than 18,000 properties. Nick was also the Director of Housing, Health and Community at Eastbourne Borough Council. He was once seconded to the Senior Civil Service leading on national policy in housing management, homelessness and tenant participation. At Eastbourne he was appointed as the youngest Director for housing in the country.

City Housing Chief Has Made a Difference

There is no doubt Chris Langstaff has done a good job at Nottingham City Homes (NCH). The chief executive of the company which manages Nottingham's 29,000 council houses has announced he intends to retire in October. He can be very pleased with what he has achieved in Nottingham. When he came here in 2007, NCH was reeling. The company, and the council-run housing service which preceded it, was largely dysfunctional. A large number of managers had left or had been forced out. Morale among those who remained was rock bottom. Now, under Mr Langstaff's guidance, the organisation and the service it provides to tenants have been transformed. The scale of the task he faced was formidable. In some ways his biggest achievement has been to turn the organisation around by recruiting competent staff, refocusing and motivating the workforce and then building a cohesive, focused team. Such culture change and the development of a common purpose is very hard to do. Read more of this editorial on the Nottingham Post website by clicking on Chris's photo below.

ALMO Attacks Decent Homes Settlement

Nottingham City Homes has only been given £40 million to upgrade its council homes in the next two years - instead of the £93 million it had asked for. The money will be spent on the Secure, Warm, Modern programme which will see windows and doors replaced, insulation programmes and modern kitchens and bathrooms fitted across thousands of homes in the city. NCH had originally been due to receive £91 million to finish the programme by 2013 but the coalition Government asked all councils to reapply. NCH asked for £93m for the next two years but will now only receive £40m between now and the end of March 2013. A further £46m may be available from April 2013 to March 2015, but NCH has said it will not know for certain for another 12 months. Chris Langstaff, Chief Executive of NCH, said: "Today's announcement will be a major blow for Nottingham's council tenants. We were on target to complete the Secure Warm Modern programme on time and under budget by 2013. We are very disappointed that because of the reduced funding, we will not be able to finish our programme as soon as we wished. This will also be bad news for our contractor partners in the private sector, who carry out the work on our decent homes programme, and the apprentices that we were hoping to develop as part of the scheme." Read more on the Nottingham Post website.

£10m Council Housing Bill If Government Funding Axed

REPAIRS and maintenance of the city's council houses could cost more than £10 million over the next five years if Government funding for an improvement programme is scrapped.  Nottingham City Homes (NCH) chief executive Chris Langstaff estimates it would cost them an extra £100 per year for every house which does not get a new bathroom or kitchen fitted.  This is due to the amount of repair work which would have to be carried out on these kitchens and bathrooms, many of which are decades old.  Under the Secure, Warm, Modern programme, NCH still has to fit more than 11,000 kitchens and 10,000 bathrooms in houses across the city.  A campaign has been launched by the NCH Tenant and Leaseholder Congress, calling for the Government to continue funding the scheme.  NCH, which manages the homes for Nottingham City Council, was asked by the Government to work out how the programme could run with a 25 per cent or 40 per cent funding cut. But there are some fears it could be scrapped.  The programme was launched last year to run until 2013. By the end of this financial year, NCH will have received only £58 million, with £107 million still owed.  Mr Langstaff said it would be hard to fund the scheme without Government cash.  "The reality is that we haven't got enough money anyway, otherwise we'd be doing that."  Read more on the Nottingham Post website by clicking on the logo below.