Transfer Update

North East Lincolnshire Council completed the transfer of 8,353 dwellings to newly-created Shoreline Housing Partnership. The Association will carry out a £156 million improvement and repairs programme, during the next ten years.

This was the first stock transfer helped by a Gap funding grant. The grant, which works to assist transfers where there is a negative value and where the local authority has made every effort to minimise the need for such funding, is worth up to £17 million, spread over three years.
The ODPM confirmed Gap funding of up to £31.3 million to support the transfer of Preston City Council's housing stock, to the new Community Gateway Association. The transfer is due to take place in Autumn 2005.
Gap funding of £30.4 million will be available to support the transfer of the Ocean Estate in Tower Hamlets, to Sanctuary Housing Association, which, if tenants vote in favour, will complete early in 2006.
The ODPM published a research report, Learning Lessons from the Estates Renewal Challenge Fund (ERCF), which found that with the help of Gap funding to support negative value transfers, extensively run down and stigmatised estates can be made attractive to sponsors, local councils, and tenants. The research also shows how housing investment through the ERCF has, in many cases, acted as a catalyst for wider social and economic neighbourhood regeneration.

Reporting on March 2005