WORCESTER City Council leader has announced a new era of closer working relationship with social landlords.
Social landlords currently provide over 7,000 homes in the city, after a meeting with coun Lynn Denham and her deputy leader, coun Jabba Riaz, there is an opportunity for shared actions and interests.
The councillors met with senior managers from Rooftop, Platform, Stonewater, Sanctuary, Bromford and Citizen housing associations.
The meeting was held in response to a motion passed by the Council in March this year, which stated: ‘We believe that by working in partnership with these landlords, they could make a greater positive contribution to many aspects of city life, to mutual benefit.’
Coun Denham said: “I was particularly pleased to hear about the levels of support that the social landlords provide to their tenants to help them with challenges like managing their budgets and making benefit claims.
“As councillors, it would be useful to know more about this area of their work, so we hope to put in place an information-sharing agreement.”
Discussions included the landlords’ work to improve the standards of their properties and make them more energy-efficient, their plans to build more properties, and the potential to work with the City Council to recruit more local people for jobs at the housing associations.
Coun Denham added: “Fly-tipping is a challenge for both the City Council and the social landlords, so that is an area where we are planning to share information and work together to tackle the areas where the biggest problems are.”
