Brent council housing now back in-house

Brent council housing officially came back in house yesterday making the demise of the arms length organisation Brent Housing Partnership.

Brent Council yesterday published the following information for tenants and leaseholders:

The council housing management services, previously provided by Brent Housing Partnership (BHP), have transferred back to Brent Council today.

The move follows a 12 week consultation with tenants and leaseholders earlier this year and a raft of improvements to council housing are planned over the next year including:

• More investment in up-to-date technology, such as a new smartphone app for simple transactions
• More joined up approach between housing and other council services, to provide a better customer experience for tenants and leaseholders
• A more responsive and flexible repairs service
• More and better targeted investment in estates, blocks and houses
• Review of service standards, to ensure we are delivering what residents want
• Better engagement of residents in decision-making about their homes and estates.

Tenancies are already held by the council so residents do not need to do anything differently and will still receive all the services they had access to under BHP. However, council tenants and leaseholders will notice a change of branding back to Brent Council which will appear on all official items including estate signage, website, social media, letters and ID cards of staff and contractors.

Councillor Harbi Farah, Lead Member for Housing at Brent Council said: “Housing is one of our most important services so it’s great that we’ve been able to bring it back in-house. Our tenants and residents can be sure that we’re committed to building on BHP’s good work and will know that we’re determined to deliver an excellent service across the board.”

Anyone who would like to help shape the new housing service can get involved by:

1. Taking part in a survey – to help with the new Customer Strategy. Surveys can be completed via this link: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/HousingCustomerStrategy  
2. Attending a workshop – to ensure that information about Service Standards is clear, useful and complete
3. Taking part in some testing – of designs for a new smartphone app

Please visit the housing website for dates of workshops, app testing and further information.

Brent Council recommended to bring housing management in-house

BHP's King's Drive Estate, Wembley

Brent Council is set to bring its housing management back in house if a recommendation going before Cabinet is approved. The issue brought tenants and leaseholders out in force at a recent Scrutiny Committee LINK.

They were determined to make the case for tenant involvement in any new arrangement and that any in-house arrangement be superior to that which existed before housing management was allocated to Brent Housing Partnership (BHP), an arms-length organisation.

Three options were considered - an enhanced BHP, in-house and a partnership arrangement. 

The report states:

In light of the evaluation it is concluded that the In-house option offers the best prospect of achieving the service transformation to deliver high-quality services at significantly reduced costs, benefitting from the Council’s wider experience in doing so in recent years. Accordingly, this report recommends to Cabinet that the In-house option be the preferred option. If agreed consultation will then be undertaken with all tenants and leaseholders and the results of this will be reported to Cabinet for a final decision.

2. Recommendations

That Cabinet:

 2.1  Agree that the preferred option for future housing management service provision to the Council’s tenants and leaseholders is Option 2, an In-house service, subject to consultation; 


2.2  Authorise officers to undertake consultation with Council tenants and leaseholders on the preferred option as set out in paragraph 2.1 and to then provide a further report to Cabinet on the responses to that consultation to inform a final decision on future housing management service arrangements.


 2.3  Instructs officers to report further on appropriate arrangements to provide for effective oversight and scrutiny by members and residents of the housing management service should the final decision be that the service be provided in-house.