A new housing initiative that would put residents in control of frontline council services such as rent collection, debt management and repairs on their estates is based on a scheme currently under review by another council.

According to Home Life, a magazine published by Kingston Council and circulated in July, Kingston’s proposed Community Housing Trust (CHT) would be similar to the “innovative” scheme started in Welwyn Hatfield five years ago that aimed to put residents in charge of running their homes.

But in April, only three months before, the Tory-led Welwyn Hatfield Council announced its CHT was under review with the possibility of housing being taken back under council control.

Home Life uses the Hertfordshire council as a case study in its promo material.

It states: “At Kingston Council we believe in learning from best practice in delivering services from well-performing organisations elsewhere.

“Welwyn Hatfield Community Housing Trust has a track record in providing excellent services in a cost-effective way.”

The scheme was proposed by the Kingston Federation of Residents to fit in with the council’s plan to become a commissioning council, outsourcing services to outside bodies where possible.

Richard Grosvenor, pictured, secretary of the federation, said: “We have visited Welwyn Hatfield many times and in our opinion their CHT is a great success.

“I would be very surprised if it went back under council control.

“It is no secret that councils often overspend on services. The residents are the people who know what is best for them and will be able to get the best deal.”

Harry Hill, head of Cambridge Road Estate Residents’ Association, said: “I have heard they are under review but this was planned [regardless of their success or failure].”

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The Cambridge Road estate 

In April an insider on the Welwyn Hatfield CHT board spoke out about the review and told the Welwyn Hatfield Times: “It’s a huge, huge bombshell. Every member of the board is angry and devastated.”

Setting up a CHT has achieved cross-party support in Kingston.

Councillor Linsey Cottingham, Kingston Labour group leader, said: “One of the reasons to set this up is I believe it would save money. The council need to save funds and residents are best placed to know how their money should be spent.”

Kingston and Welwyn Hatfield Councils both denied the review suggested the scheme was failing despite plans for council officers to be drafted back in at the latter.

A spokesman for Kingston Council said: “Councils across the country are carefully reviewing everything they do in order to meet the financial challenges we face.

“Given the significant costs of managing and maintaining housing stock, it is no surprise that many councils are reviewing their current arrangements, whatever those arrangements may be.” 

A spokesman for Welwyn Hatfield Council said: “At a time when we are set to move all housing trust staff into the main council offices, we are also taking the opportunity to review the ongoing management of the council’s housing stock. 

“Underpinning the review is an assessment of whether merging the housing trust back under council control will be the best way of continuing to deliver high quality housing services.”

Its independent review will be published at the end of September.

  • A meeting of the Community Housing Trust shadow board on September 7 in Kingston was unexpectedly cancelled this week. An alternative date for the meeting is yet to be announced.

Better Homes 

Kingston’s existing Better Homes scheme for council housing has received mixed reviews from tenants and leaseholders since its 2012 launch.

It is a major improvement works programme that was supposed to see all of the borough’s council-owned housing ultimately exceeding Government standards by 2017.

In January 2015 council leader Kevin Davis, pictured, said the programme brought in by the previous Liberal Democrat administration was “not good enough”.

Residents have also complained the scheme has fallen short of expectations.

Last July homeowners on the Kingsnympton estate hit out at the council when they were asked to fork out almost £10,000 of their own money to pay for communal repairs.

Wiviam Clogassi, a leaseholder of Church Lane in Chessington, said: “The costs just seem to have gone up and up. A few months ago we were all informed that our block of flats would be renovated. There has been a series of terrible work, nothing makes sense and we feel that our money is being wasted. We are now being told we will have to wait until December for answers.”

A 15-year programme to regenerate the borough’s largest estates including the Cambridge Road estate was announced alongside the proposal to set up a CHT this year.

The programme aims to provide better quality homes and bring about new housing.

 Kingston Federation of Residents’ secretary Richard Grosvenor said: “I think we have come to realise that the Better Homes project is just the beginning.

 “This kind of programme needs to keep going.”