GWSF Tenements pdf April 2015

The Reasons for the Growing ProblemWe asked our members what theythought were the three main reasonsfor properties falling below standard.The three most commonly mentionedreasons were:• Lack of routine and cyclicalmaintenance of the building (75% ofresponses).• Lack of interest from owners (50% ofresponses).• Lack of management of the building(42% of responses).These issues are clearly interlinked.Housing associations found that ownerswere very often unwilling or unableto invest money into maintainingtheir properties. Some owners hadbought under Right to Buy and maynot have realised the costs associatedwith maintaining the common parts oftenements. Owners are often ‘propertyrich but income poor’. Some may havenegative equity. And the requiredinvestment in their property may notlead to an early equivalent increase inproperty value.There has also been a rapid growth inthe size of the private rented sector.Renfrewshire Council noted a growth of50% in the rented stock since 2004 (to7% of the total). While Glasgow recordeda 115% increase in the size of the privaterented sector (to 17% of the total stock)between the 2001 and 2011 Censuses. Ourmembers report that it is often difficult toengage private landlords in discussionsabout the management and maintenanceof the common fabric of the tenements inwhich they own flats. One local authorityinterviewee said ‘... the private sector,including former Right to Buy properties,is now a major time bomb’.Housing associations, where they haveany ownership, are almost alwaysminority owners within these tenements,so are often cautious about committing8expenditure without the agreement of themajority of owners.Statutory powers may not always be usedas this could require councils to spendscarce resources – and there is no supportto owners for improvement work.There may be no agreed process forfactoring the property and no rationalmaintenance plan – and many privatelandlords are unwilling to invest in thelong term future of tenements. It is veryunusual for owners to set aside fundsfor future major repair or componentreplacement, meaning that funds are notavailable when they are required.The constant deterioration of the poorlymanaged and maintained section of thetenement stock not only has an impacton the tenements immediately affected,but on a much wider area. At its worst itcan make the areas concerned feel lessattractive, less safe and more isolatedplaces to live.For this reason 47% of the associationssurveyed had considered taking actionto improve the standards and theongoing management and maintenanceof tenement buildings. But 53% hadnot considered taking action for twomain reasons – it was unlikely to stackup financially (55% of responses) andthey were unlikely to be able to acquireproperties (36%).Of the 47% that had considered takingaction, most had not been able to do so.The main reasons for this were:• Ownership issues (56%).• Not a priority for local authority (44%).• The current financial regime is notappropriate for CTI (33%).Only nine of the responding CCHAs haveundertaken CTI in the last 10 years –and these have generally been ‘one-off’projects. There is some frustration for