Torbay Council

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Stock Transfer

Torbay Council transferred its housing stock of nearly 3,000 homes on the 19th February 2001 to a new housing company called Riviera Housing Trust . With its own priorities, aims, focus and accountability to different stakeholders, its decisions and actions have a direct effect on many local people in housing and other services. The offer document to tenants noted that Riviera would have provision within its Business Plan to spend approximately £11.86 million on the stock in the five years after transfer.

A changing background and context

When a council sells most or all of its homes, this is not just a matter for existing tenants and staff providing a landlord service; it affects the way the whole council works and all its housing services. The money that transfer can bring to an area is not directly linked to authority need or performance. Some of the money is nationally funded, but it is left to local authorities to decide how or if they wish to spend receipts. At the point of transfer, the Council made a commitment to use 80 per cent (£2.8 million) of the useable capital receipt for social housing schemes.  

What 'large scale voluntary transfer' means and how it has developed

A large scale voluntary transfer [LSVT] can only go ahead after a ballot of existing tenants. A majority of those who vote have to agree. The price paid for the properties by the new landlord is known as the Tenanted Market Value (TMV). This is worked out according to a Government formula but affected by local assumptions and agreements. Money needed to buy the homes and carry out repairs and improvements is borrowed from private institutions against the security of future rental income. Councils do not have this freedom to borrow.
Further information on the transfer of housing stock is available from the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) formerly the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister.



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