Local Government Ombudsman, Patricia Thomas, issued a report on her investigation of a complaint against Manchester City Council.
Mrs B complained that the Council advised her wrongly about the Right to Buy her home. Mrs B said she should have received a discount on the purchase price.
The Ombudsman's investigation found that costs for works carried out to the roof of the block in which Mrs B lived were applied only to maisonettes on the upper floor of the block, whereas the cost of maintaining the roof was apportioned amongst all tenants in the service charge.
The effect of the Council's policy on discounts was that tenants of ground floor properties who applied to buy their homes were dealt with more favourably in comparison with tenants of maisonettes on the upper floor. The investigation, however, found that even if a fairer system had been applied, Mrs B would still not have been entitled to a discount and so would still have been unable to afford to buy her own home.
The report finds maladministration, but no injustice to the complainant. The Council, however, has agreed to review its policy of apportioning costs, to avoid future disadvantage to any one group of its tenants.
Report No. 04/C/01010
A new report from the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) calls for arms length management organisations (ALMOs) to be given more financial freedom, to allow them to continue beyond their initial remits of achieving the Decent Homes Target.
The report lists options aimed at allowing ALMOs to operate on a self-sufficient basis, funded by their rental incomes. These include:
A Defend Council Housing spokesperson said the report proved that his organisation hadn't been scare-mongering when it referred to ALMOs as two-stage privatisation.
ALMOs: A New Future for Council Housing is jointly published by the CIH, the National Federation of ALMOs, and Housemark. Download the report at www.cih.org