A new report, funded by the Housing Corporation, concludes that the transfer of local authority homes to Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) housing associations has not been a priority and more should be done to ensure the growth of specialist BME housing providers.
The report makes a raft of recommendations to help increase the number of homes owned or managed by BME associations via stock transfer. More than one million council homes have transferred to housing associations since the late 1980s, yet hardly any, either directly or via mainstream associations, have gone to specialist BME housing providers.
The report recommends action across the entire affordable housing sector, including:
BME Housing Associations
and Stock Transfers:
Campbell Tickell
Tenants of Sefton Council voted against stock transfer (55%), leading to the launch of an investigation by the Council into claims that the ballot was affected by a dirty tricks campaign. The ballot result has left the Council with serious financial problems.
The Council claims that some tenants have complained about being offered bribes by anti-transfer campaigners. There have also been reports of tenants being approached by people claiming to be officers of the Council and who have canvassed against the proposed transfer.
Concerns have also been expressed about the high numbers of duplicate votes and the large number of requests for additional ballot papers. Anti-transfer campaigners have denied the claims.
Western Isles Council took a step nearer to stock transfer after a pre-ballot survey found over 60% of tenants intend to vote in favour of the proposal. Only 8% of tenants were definitely planning to vote against transfer in October's ballot, which could lead to the Council's housing stock being taken over by the newly formed Hebridean Housing Partnership.