Lewisham Homes transfers into Council
Lewisham Council has formally taken over responsibility for managing and maintaining more than 19,000 homes across the borough, following the transfer of staff and services from Lewisham Homes.
This means that from 1 October, services like repairs and grounds maintenance are the responsibility of the Council.
The aim of bringing housing management back into the Council is to improve it for residents by providing a more joined-up service, linking housing and other Council services that residents rely on.
There will not be any changes to tenants’ and leaseholders’ rights and rent levels and service charges will continue to be reviewed annually. Staff are now working in the new Housing directorate, led by Executive Director for Housing, Gillian Douglas.
Lewisham Homes email addresses will still work and will be redirected to new Council addresses. Information about repairs, contact details and other housing issues can be found on the Council’s website. Lewisham Homes’ social media channels will remain active, under the name Lewisham Council Housing Services. Staff uniforms and existing signage will be changed to Council branding as and when they need replacing, in order to minimise costs and reduce waste.
Mayor of Lewisham, Damien Egan, said: “This is an exciting new chapter, as the Council insources management of our social housing. We’re looking forward to working with tenants, leaseholders, our TRAs and staff to improve services and provide high-quality homes for local people.
“We know we face big challenges ahead; social housing across London and the rest of the country is facing a funding crisis. However, we have a brilliant and very experienced new senior team at the Council, including our new Executive Director for Housing Gillian Douglas and new Cabinet Member for Housing Cllr Will Cooper, who are ready to tackle the issues that matter most to tenants and leaseholders.
“We’re committed to involving residents in our improvement plans and increasing transparency and we’ll be letting residents know how they can get involved and share their views over the coming months.”
The move follows a survey of residents, in which 71% of respondents said they supported the proposal, 6% disagreed and 23% said they didn’t know. Bringing management services in-house is something Lewisham, like councils across the country, considered for a number of reasons.
When Lewisham Homes was set up, housing companies were able to claim extra grants that councils could not, but this funding is no longer available. Following the Grenfell fire tragedy, new regulations are now in force which the Council is legally responsible for fulfilling.