Councils and housing associations in the West Midlands have agreed to work together to help tenants prepare for forthcoming welfare reforms.
The West Midlands Making Best Use Of Housing Stock (WMBUS) partnership, which includes Birmingham City Council and the WM Housing Group, are developing a framework to help tenants and landlords deal with the upcoming changes to the benefit system.
‘Welfare reform is going to have a massive impact on the housing sector and a potentially distressing effect on residents,’ said WMBUS chair, Diane Middleton.
‘We are taking a broad vision on how the industry can work together to share and mitigate both the responsibility and results of these changes. We have a duty to protect our residents. To do this we intend to pool some of our housing stock, jointly identify where and what local and regional needs are, share best practice and communicate consistently to customers.’
The group is being supported by the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH).
‘It’s really encouraging to see so many organisations present in the WMBUS partnership and I think it represents a great opportunity to make the best use of a scant resource,’ said CIH making best use of stock advisor, Fleur Priest-Stephens.
‘Sharing good practice and pooling resources is key to ensuring that housing providers can meet the challenges of sector reform.’
The WMBUS group will hold a summit on June 21 on the issue of welfare reform for housing providers, landlords and developers.
