West Northamptonshire Council has announced its decision to take immediate steps to address the performance failings of Northampton Partnership Homes (NPH). The council has honed in on a number of problems with NPH these last two years. Due to this, they are moving the direction of social housing in Northampton to a sharper needle.
At the start of a cabinet meeting at The Forum in Towcester, council leaders revealed the significant decision. They’ll bring social housing repairs services back into public management. The decision follows a report that highlighted several concerns, including inaccurate data reporting and overdue fire risk assessments for 180 properties managed by NPH. The council announced that all remaining fire safety inspections would be done by the end of December 2024.
NPH’s portfolio ranges from historic urban properties to new multi-family developments. This ranges from high-rise blocks to single-family homes, and from supported accommodations to vibrant community hubs. NPH manages more than 2,000 garages and homes of seniors.
Charlie Hastie, Newcastle’s cabinet member for housing focused on doing what’s right for residents by delivering “the best possible housing service”. He noted that re-incorporating NPH into the City would streamline governance and enhance compliance, as well as providing increased oversight of quality. Hastie made it clear that the goal should be to build a service that is “safe, responsive, and accountable” to the public.
“One that is safe, responsive, and accountable. By bringing this provision back in-house, we can simplify governance, strengthen compliance, and have greater control over quality while also providing tenants with the best value for money.” – Charlie Hastie
The move represents a big turnaround for the Reform UK-led council, which took control at local elections in May. The cabinet unanimously voted to move forward with the initiative, underscoring their dedication to enhancing social housing standards.
Dan Lister, leader of the Conservative group on the unitary authority, has publically backed the decision. He noted that there were other possibilities that might be valuable to explore.
“These aren’t the only three options that have been presented before us, and there are significantly more options that we should be considering.” – Dan Lister
Labour group leader Sally Keeble warned that it was ineffective, calling the proposal to bring NPH in-house “fluff”. Still, she accepted it as a move in the right direction. She was clear that this is insufficient to counter the scale and complexity of the problems already at play.
“There’s only one realistic option on the table about bringing it back in-house; however, I don’t think that is remotely adequate to deal with the scale and the size of the problems.” – Sally Keeble
West Northamptonshire Council is still expected to have a full consultation in July. Their goal is to learn directly from renters and lease holders affected by this shift. The housing stock operated by NPH encompasses historic estates of importance such as those in Kings Heath, Kingsthorpe and Spring Boroughs.
For Hastie, transparency and accountability were the most urgent issues. He laid claim to the idea that NPH has largely failed to live up to these key principles in recent years.
“Transparency, accountability and legal and safe is the overriding driving force of what we’ve got to do, and it has not been forthcoming [by NPH] in the last year or so.” – Charlie Hastie
