Groundbreaking stock transfer
| Published: 8th December 2007 16:31 |
Lewisham residents have welcomed the largest ever housing stock transfer in the borough.
The groundbreaking transfer, which took place on 3 December, was community-led from the outset and sees ownership of 5,500 tenanted and 800 leasehold homes transfer from Lewisham Council to the Phoenix Community Housing Association. The properties are in the Bankfoot , Bellingham and John Henry neighbourhoods in the south of the borough.
The Phoenix Community Housing Association is the first resident-led Housing Association in London; where residents decided to follow the ‘Community Gateway Model'. The Model involves residents at the earliest possible level and enables them to take the lead in decision-making and management.
The Phoenix Community Housing Association has received the backing of the Housing Corporation and the Government, who were pleased to support and fund Phoenix because the Association is genuinely resident-led.
Mayor of Lewisham, Sir Steve Bullock, said: "The Phoenix stock transfer is the most exciting thing to happen in housing for years. The people who know most about their own housing needs are clearly those people who live there.
"Residents now have the power to decide what's best for them in meeting their housing needs - and the power to get it done the way they want. Congratulations to Phoenix - I wish them every possible success in the future."
Pat Fordham, tenant and Chair of the Phoenix Management Board, said: "It's been a long road to get to where we are today - the transfer of homes to the Phoenix Community Housing Association. There are many people, some not with us today, who have been involved right from the start, eight and half years ago.
"It all started with a trip to a Birmingham conference all those years ago where we learned that we could take the Community Gateway Model and mould it to into something workable for our own community. And here we are today - with our destiny in our own hands. I'm still pinching myself that it has finally happened!"
Jim Ripley, Chief Executive of the Phoenix Community Housing Association, said: "Phoenix is the start of something very special. It will be the first Community Gateway association in London, the first organisation where residents lead and are members of their own Housing Association.
"This new Community Housing Association, led by residents (tenants and leaseholders), gives us huge potential to regenerate our neighbourhood in the way residents want."
Residents in the area have been leading the process to transfer ownership, with tenants and leaseholders making up the biggest single group on the management board of the new ‘owners' - the Phoenix Community Housing Association.
More than £70 million will be spent over the next seven years bringing homes up to the ‘Phoenix Standard' - a higher specification than the Government's Decent Homes Standard.
In the next two years all tenanted homes will have double glazed windows and external security doors. Within four years, all tenanted homes will have modern kitchens and bathrooms. There will also be a programme of security, environmental and other external works, such as re-roofing
