The Leader of the Council's online diary- July 2007
Thursday 26 July 2007
I am delighted by last week’s news that local people have voted in favour of setting up an ALMO for Lambeth.
An ALMO - or Arms Length Management Organisation – is a new way of managing the council’s housing service. Instead of the council running the service directly, we will set up a new organisation led by a board that includes councillors and directly elected tenant and leaseholder representatives. This makes the housing service much more responsive to the needs of people who live in council housing.
Even better, by setting up an ALMO, the council can ask the Government for millions of pounds of extra funding to improve local homes. Here in Lambeth, we need £240 million to make sure every home has central heating, draught-proof windows, rain-proof roofs, and a modern kitchen and bathroom. With the ALMO, that opportunity is now open to us. What a great prize for local people!
Dozens of other councils have already set up an ALMO to run their housing service, and they’ve proved their worth by delivering major improvements in the way housing is managed.
Some opponents of ALMOs claim that it’s a form of privatisation, but that’s just plain wrong. Every home stays in council ownership, and the council continues to set rent levels. The ALMO is good news for Lambeth, and I’m really excited that, today, residents living on estates up and down our borough have given their consent for Lambeth’s ALMO to go ahead.