Why getting on a bike is not an easy option for most tenants

A blog update from Brendan Ryan 16/11/11

I was asked to do a radio interview recently about the launch of the government’s Home Swap scheme.  It reminded me about some of the key points from the Hill’s report on social housing which described how difficult it is for tenants of councils and housing associations to move to other parts of the country to find work. 

Only 4% of moves in the social housing sector are related to employment compared to 18% in the private sector.  While the lack of affordable housing will always make it difficult for tenants to move, the real problem is the way social housing is allocated. 

Councils have their own housing pressures and obligations to house people who are homelessness or have other urgent housing needs, so there is not too much scope to offer a home to people from outside the area.  Short of giving up the security of a council tenancy and moving into the private rented sector, tenants are restricted to looking for a job in the area where they live.

Things are set to get worse especially for tenants living in areas of high unemployment.  Councils facing increasing pressures from homelessness locally will be less inclined to accept people moving into their area to find work.  People from places like East Kent will find it harder to move to areas where employment prospects are better.

There may be a glimmer of hope on the horizon.  The National Home Swop scheme will help some families that want to move to other areas, providing they can find someone wanting to go the other way. East Kent is an attractive part of the country and I am sure that there will be lots of people who will want to move here, possibly after their working life has finished.  Meanwhile Kent HomeChoice is working with councils and housing associations throughout Kent to develop better ways for tenants to move across the county. 

A blog update from Brendan Ryan 4/11/11

One of the reasons we chose to set up East Kent Housing as an ALMO was the impressive track record of these organisations in delivering both improvements in services and efficiencies.  It is sad to hear of the demise of both Islington Homes and Sheffield Homes, two organisations that have achieved much for their residents in a short period of time.

I am sure that there are many factors behind the decisions to return these services in house and it is no reflection on the performance or service quality of these organisations.  The costs and overheads of ALMOs is often cited as the reason from winding them up but these need to be measured against the considerable cost  savings that most ALMOs have made and the improvements in service quality that have been delivered.  Would these improvements have been achieved without the ALMOs?  The evidence suggests they wouldn’t.

We all need to be mindful of keeping the overheads of management and governance to a minimum. We are certainly trying to do this in East Kent Housing and our recent changes to our staffing arrangements have kept a very lean back office structure while increasing resources at the coal face where it matters to our tenants.

 As someone who has spent my working life managing social housing in various forms, I think that the emergence of ALMOs has been one of the most refreshing developments in the last decade. They have set new standards for housing management and have challenged other service providers to up their game.  I hope that ALMOs continue to be at the cutting edge of service delivery in the housing sector and that East Kent Housing is able to make its own contribution to  raising standards to a new level.

Brendan Ryan

Chief Executive

Contact East Kent Housing

I can’t believe summer is over!

A blog update from Brendan Ryan 7/9/11

A jam-packed summer saw our tenant representatives and board members visit the Houses of Parliament to speak about their involvement in East Kent Housing, Mears started working on repairs in Dover adding to their contracts in Thanet and Canterbury and our new Area Managers were appointed.

Our Area Boards met for the first time; these new bodies will strengthen accountability to both local tenants and councillors and will play an important role from now on, scrutinising our performance and what we do.

We recently welcomed two new Board Members – Cllr Jennifer Matterface as the Thanet Council member and Chris Hanagan, a tenant from Dover nominated by the District Tenants Group.  The leadership of our Board is vital to the success of East Kent Housing and I know our new members bring a wealth of skills and experience to the Board.

September is going to be our busiest month yet.  We are working with the Board, tenant representatives on the Area Boards, our staff and colleagues in the four councils to write next year’s delivery plan. The plan will set out our improvement plans for next year.    

Comments received from tenants during this summer’s tenants’ survey will also be used to help us write the delivery plan and we are holding a conference of tenants from the Area Boards next week to look at other ideas for the plan.

The time that I have spent visiting our estates in recent months and talking to tenants and staff has given me lots of ideas on what I think we need to improve. It’s a long list and may keep us busy for a few years to come. What was especially encouraging from the recent tenants’ survey was the number of positive comments that tenants made about EKH and the people who work for us. Knowing that people appreciate what we do is a great boost and will inspire us to work even harder to provide a first class service.

We are beginning to work with tenant representatives to decide how the Area Boards can be used to scrutinise what we do. I would like to thank all the tenants and staff who gave up time to take part in the recent tenant scrutiny workshops.

Our Annual Report will be published in October and the tenant communications group have again played an important role in designing the report in a tenant friendly way.  It amazing to read in the reports what we achieved last year completing a large number of improvements to tenants’ homes to make sure that we fully met the Decent Homes standard before the target dates. All this was done against the back drop of setting up East Kent Housing and transferring the service from the four councils.  We are confident that we can build on the good work of the councils and make even more improvements in the years ahead.

Friday 17 June was a big day for me. It was the day I was given the job as Chief Executive of EKH.  It is a real privilege to be entrusted with the responsibility of leading EKH during this critical period as we complete the set up of the organisation and establish good working relationships with our local authority partners.  I am grateful to the board for putting their trust in me and the rest of the team.

We have also during this period completed other appointments to the senior management team and details can be found on the news section of the website. We hope to fill some of the other management positions in the next couple of weeks.  This is all a precursor to looking seriously at how we can best deliver services in the future and what staffing arrangements we need to make the most of merging four services in to one. I appreciate that this is not an easy process and will be a worrying time for our colleagues. It is important that we uphold the principles of our values throughout the process.

This week we completed the first round of our Area Board meetings. Area Boards provide an opportunity for tenants to hold us to account and scrutinise what we do. Ward councillors can also get involved in the work of Area Boards. We intend in the next couple of months to invest in training to ensure that tenants on the Area Boards have the skills to challenge our work effectively.

Nationally there continues to be a high level of interest in what East Kent Housing is doing and how we came to set up the first multi council ALMO. We have been featured twice in the last month in Inside Housing and this week we gave a presentation on the EKH model to MPs in the Houses of Parliament.  One of our colleagues from the councils recently spoke about East Kent Housing at the National Housing Conference in Harrogate and I am speaking to the national ALMO conference next month.

On a more local level, I have spent much time in recent weeks walking around getting to know our estates better especially in areas where I have not previously worked.  I have been impressed by some of the initiatives that local housing officers have developed on their patches especially to deal with anti social behaviour.  However there is still scope for improvement especially with standards of cleaning and gardening in some areas.  We have developed some great initiatives to get residents more involved in monitoring conditions on their estates and this will hopefully help improve standards in the coming months.

Brendan Ryan

Chief Executive

Contact East Kent Housing

It seems like ages ago that over 230 people joined us to officially launch East Kent Housing at Westgate Hall, Canterbury but it was only at the start of the April! I was so impressed with the positivity from staff and tenants alike, that it really spurred me back on to start making the housing improvements we’ve promised now that we are up and running.

We promised to get local Area Boards up and running quickly so we can give you the chance to tell us what’s important locally for you.  My plan is to start the first series of Area Board meetings in June – so I’ll keep you posted on how this progresses and when the dates of the meetings are.  You can find out what will be discussed at the next main board meetings by reading the agenda list.

Since the launch, we’ve had lots of interest from the press both locally but also from the professional housing press including Inside Housing and the Guardian – take a look in a news section to read the articles.  As we are the first organisation of our kind, we are also getting lots of attention from other councils keen to do what we have achieved – so before long, I’m sure another ‘super almo’ will be born!

As East Kent Housing’s Head Office is in Shepway and I’ve been trying to take some time to enjoy what Folkestone has to offer.  Between meetings and finishing some major pieces of work, including keeping up visits to local areas, I make sure to get out to see the harbour, cultural quarter and the Leas. 

I’m still really interested in, is hearing from you, so if you do have any questions or feedback about East Kent Housing, please make sure to get in touch.  You can email us or if you have a local issue, contact your tenant participation officer.

Kind regards,

Brendan Ryan

Interim Managing Director

Welcome and thank you!

I would like to welcome you to East Kent Housing and after a lot of hard work – from tenants, leaseholders, staff and managers across the four councils – I’m delighted that East Kent Housing is now a reality.   

East Kent Housing now provides all your council housing services including your rents, repairs, housing estates and tenancy matters.   Your council will remain as your landlord and they still own all the council housing and receive all your rent payments. 

This website outlines the services East Kent Housing provides and gives you all the information you need to access your local council housing services.  If you have any questions please feel free to contact us.

East Kent Housing's mission is to provide 'a fresh approach for a better housing service in East Kent' and the services we deliver to you, will focus around our five key values:

1. Approachable

2. Professional

3. Trustworthy

4. Respectful

5. Progressive

I want to be proud of East Kent Housing for delivering a first class council housing service to you and I will be updating this blog over the coming months, with the latest news that might be of interest to you.

I hope you enjoy the website and the first East Kent Housing magazine we have sent you recently, but if you do have any comments, please get in touch using the local contact details on this web site.

Kind regards,

Brendan Ryan

Interim Managing Director