Homes for Change News Alert
Update: Friday 13th July
the future of Homes for Change...
On Wednesday, 11th July, the Board of Trustees of the Guinness Trust, chaired by the Marchioness of Douro, decide NOT to extinguish the organisation responsible for one of the most innovative and successful social housing developments in the country, Homes for Change Housing Co-operative in Hulme, Manchester - not just yet at least.
Find out more at the Homes for Change Website
URGENT PRESS RELEASE
Posted: 9 July 2001
Stakeholder Society - Reality or Rhetoric?
Guinness may not be good for you
On Wednesday, 11th July, the Board of Trustees of the Guinness Trust, chaired by the Marchioness of Douro, are considering a decision which will extinguish the organisation responsible for one of the most innovative and successful social housing developments in the country, Homes for Change Housing Co-operative in Hulme, Manchester. This threatens to set an ugly precedent for tenants of social landlords across the country, setting the Trust against the express wishes of the co-op members and Tony Blair's vision of 'active citizenship' in a 'stakeholder society'.
Part of the £250m urban regeneration of Hulme, Homes for Change (HFC) and its sister co-op Work for Change have created an award winning housing and workspace scheme housing over a hundred people and 26 businesses. The culmination of years of work by local people committed to inner city living and genuine democratic control, Homes for Change was invited to be the 'co-operative option' in the redevelopment of Hulme in the early 1990s. The Co-op, at the behest of the Housing Corporation, entered into a 'development agreement' with the Guinness Trust. The Trust were to develop the building on their behalf and then sell to the Co-op.
After a catalogue of errors and huge cost overruns the Guinness Trust are threatening to renege on their agreement to sell the building to the co-operative. The suspicion is that they are going to try to recoup their losses by taking over direct management and thus control over rent increases. "It looks to us as if the Guinness Trust failed to manage the whole process and is making a small community organisation pay for it" said Charlie Baker, Homes for Change resident and Co-op spokesperson. "We negotiated over three and a half million pounds of public money to build our building and we think it's time the Trust stopped dragging this out and kept its promises to our community."
With spiralling costs, over 700 outstanding defects and an articulate and informed group of residents to point them out, HfC has become a financial and political embarrassment for a housing association with an already less than satisfactory track record. The Housing Corporation's 2000 Performance Assessment and Investment Summary states: "The Guinness Trust's performance falls short of the corporation's targets in all areas except urgent and routine repairs."
Guinness is threatening to run against the direction of government housing policy. When launching the National Strategy for Neighbourhood Renewal in 1998, Tony Blair stated: "too much has been imposed from above when experience shows that success depends on communities having the power and taking the responsibility to make things better". The future of Homes for Change is an indicator of whether there is any real commitment on the part of those charged with delivering the government's vision to make it a reality. If the Trust decides to take over, many communities will question whether anyone is really interested in giving them genuine control over their own futures.
The Guinness Trustees meet to decide the future of Homes for Change at the same time as the Department of Transport, Local Government and the Regions is promoting the transfer of 4 million houses out of local authority control, mostly to housing associations. This act by a large housing association sets a bad precedent for Council tenants considering whether to vote in favour of a transfer to a new landlord.
Homes for Change has made real much of what New Labour has stated it wishes to see in regeneration. In a climate of privatisation, private finance initiatives and public private partnerships, Guinness's actions signify a worrying trend. At stake is not just the fate of the community these inner city residents have built, but also the future shape of urban regeneration in the UK.
Next Wednesday the Guinness Trust will send out a clear message whether it's to be one of the housing associations that support the concept of community empowerment or one of the stragglers who still seek to prevent it.
Charlie Baker asked "Do buzz words like 'community empowerment' and 'active citizenship' have any real meaning, or are they merely empty rhetoric? Are the desires of communities simply an output on a funding form? The desire for active citizenship is a lost cause if this is the case."
END
Press Call and Photo Opportunity
'Let them Eat Cake'
At 9.30am on Wednesday July 11th, co-op members and their children will be in London to attempt to present a cake in the shape of a 3-D model of the Homes for Change building to the Marchioness of Douro and the Guinness Trustees at Apsley House, 149 Piccadilly. The icing on the cake will say, 'Please take a slice but don't take it all'. Spokesperson Charlie Baker will be present to answer all media enquiries.
Notes for Editors
Homes for Changes is an award winning building in the middle of the Hulme redevelopment programme. The scheme won the 1997 Housing Design Award, a 1997 RIBA award, a Best Practice in Urban Regeneration Award from BURA in 1998, was nominated in the World Habitat awards and featured in the video presentation for the 1995 International Co-operative Alliance Centennial, the National Strategy for Neighbourhood Renewal and the recent Government Housing Green Paper. It is a model for the delivery of the Urban Renaissance showing how mixed use, high density, urban living can work for people of all incomes. The scheme was also a demonstration project for Rowntree's 21st Century Homes. It also received the much vaunted Hot Dip Galvanizers award.
Homes for Change has an alternative proposal. It has been able to raise a £1.7 million loan from the Co-operative bank - 80% of the value of the building. In the original spirit of the partnership they are proposing that the Trust extends a loan for the remaining 20%. As a result of management training and development provided by Birmingham Co-operative Homes they are now included in recently published best practice.
The Guinness Trust manages over 16,000 properties across the country.
The Trustees will be meeting at the Marchioness of Douro's house in Apsley House 149, Piccadilly at 9:30am. The Marchioness is Chair of the Trustees of the Guinness Trust.
Prince Charles, a keen supporter of community initiatives, is the Patron of the Guinness Trust.
Contact/Further Information:
Website: http://www.homes4change.org/
Media enquiries to:
Charlie Baker
Homes for Change
charlie@beeker.co.uk
tel. +44 (0)161 232 1588
fax. +44 (0)161 226 7307
mob. +44 (0)7976 793 795
Images of the building, residents, etc to accompany media reports are available on request.
