Residents of the Bloomsbury Estate in Nechells, Birmingham have gained increasing control over managing and maintaining their neighbourhood.  They set up the country’s first Estate Management Board and then transferred management of their housing to a community-run co-operative.  In the process they have improved housing conditions and, by working with public agencies, have established a range of community-based neighbourhood services in the area.

Background

Bloomsbury is an estate situated in Nechells, one mile North of Birmingham City Centre.  The area has seen a sustained decline in local industry and employment opportunities.  By the early 1980s, Bloomsbury was ‘one of the worst estates in the country’.  Up to 90% of housing allocations on the estate were to homeless people.  More than one in ten properties were empty and boarded up.  One in four adults was unemployed.  The average tenancy lasted only 5 years.    In 1989, however, Bloomsbury made history.  It became the first estate to set up an Estate Management Board.  Over the last 20 years, residents have been actively involved in housing, and neighbourhood, regeneration.

‘Priority Estate’

Bloomsbury residents set up a tenants’ association in 1980.  In 1984, the Government declared Bloomsbury one of seven ‘Priority Estates’ across the country.  With this status came some extra funding and targeted support from the Priority Estates Project (PEP) team.  PEP set up an office in the neighbourhood and started working with Bloomsbury Tenants Association and Birmingham City Council officers to regenerate the area.  This was the catalyst that enabled residents to get more involved in managing the estate.

Estate Management Board

Estate Management Boards (EMBs) were established in the 1988 Housing Act as a way of enabling social housing residents to take on some of the responsibility for managing their housing.  Under an EMB structure, housing services were still delivered by local council staff.  Housing management and maintenance staff remained council employees, but were seconded to the EMB.  Up to 1988, housing co-operatives – which for some tenants seemed too challenging a prospect – offered the only alternative for tenant management.  EMBs provided a ‘half way house’.

In 1989, Bloomsbury residents became the first to use the new Housing Act when they voted in favour of establishing an EMB.  Government approved the move in 1990 and in August 1991 a formal management agreement between residents and Birmingham City Council was signed. This gave Bloomsbury its own housing budget and set up a Board (with 12 elected resident reps, four Council reps and four co-optees).  Although the budgets remained with the Council, the EMB could allocate it according to residents’ priorities.  There was encouragement for local innovation: any savings made through improved management could be re-invested in the estate, rather than absorbed into the Council’s main housing account; and money could be carried forward from one year to another.

As the first EMB in the country, Bloomsbury residents and their partners shared a steep learning curve.  In the first year they struggled with the new challenges of setting management and maintenance priorities.  From the second year on, however, they made savings on the Council budget, which they were able to invest in housing and wider neighbourhood services.  Double-glazing and central heating were extended to all properties on the estate using these savings.

The resident board members were visible on the estate on a day-to-day basis, making them accessible to Bloomsbury residents.   They were held accountable for what the EMB did.  With support from the PEP, resident board members gained and shared experience and skills; they felt able to take on wider responsibility for regenerating the neighbourhood.

Wider Regeneration

The existence of the EMB and the number of local volunteers who had become involved, made Bloomsbury a potential partner for the City Council in its subsequent bid for Estate Action funding.  As a result of the City Council-led bid, the estate received £10m for physical improvements.  The EMB partnership won a further £12.6m for wider social and economic renewal.  The EMB was also able to deliver regeneration funded by the Birmingham Heartlands Development Corporation – an agency responsible for the regeneration of the wider area.

Over the next ten years, Bloomsbury residents helped turn regeneration cash into a new health centre, employment resource centre, sports pitches and play areas, a credit union and a redeveloped shopping precinct.  The worst housing was demolished; other housing was refurbished; 150 new homes were built.

Right to Manage

In 1993, Parliament passed a new law giving tenants a ‘Right to Manage’ through new  Tenant Managed Organisations (TMOs).  A TMO manages: rent collection, repairs, major works, caretaking, grounds management, wardens, tenancy management and finance and staffing arrangements.  The Council remains the legal owner and landlord of the property, fixes rent levels, allocates capital funds and annual budgets, provides advice and support, and generally monitors operations.

In 1995, Bloomsbury EMB issued a right to manage notice on Birmingham City Council with a view to setting up as a TMO.  According to Roy Read, Chair of the EMB, the Council was slow to respond and support Bloomsbury’s right to manage.  With the aid of the PEP, Bloomsbury residents called on national government to intervene.   In July 1999, residents were finally balloted on the Right to Manage proposal, and voted in favour.  The following year, Bloomsbury EMB signed a new Management Agreement with the Council marking its new status as a TMO.

With greater financial and management independence, Bloomsbury EMB started employing its own repair team in 2001 and have had to develop a new administration system.  It now employs 35 staff responsible for managing and maintaining 696 council properties (housing approximately 2000 people), with further 150 leaseholder and owner-occupier properties.  TMO status means that Bloomsbury employs its own staff and has a separate account from the Council.  The TMO Board has fewer Council representatives.  As a TMO, the Board is able to get more involved in wider issues of neighbourhood management.

Conclusion

Passing power to increasingly resident-led structures in Bloomsbury has been accompanied by real improvements in local housing and wider quality of life in the area:

  • repair costs have dropped by two thirds
  • on-site letting and viewing has dramatically reduced voids and turnover
  • rent arrears have been reduced
  • the redesign of the entrance including the introduction of new doors, and a concierge system has reduced crime and antisocial behaviour
  • Nechells Credit Union has been set up and has 2000 investors
  • new leisure and health centres have been built.

Birmingham’s Independent Housing Commission in 2002 (see the LSE report on the Commission led by Anne Power) recognised the estate offered a positive and viable example of community based housing management.  Bloomsbury shows how local governance can shift over time: community leadership shouldn’t be presented as ‘all or nothing’.

FURTHER INFORMATION AND BACKGROUND