Ethos Public Relations Manchester

A European Union for Rochdale

by Ethos public relations

ALMO Rochdale Boroughwide Housing (RBH) has become one of the founding members of a trans-national social housing group. RBH will work with Cité Nouvelle (France), Botkyrkabyggen (Sweden), Freie Scholle (Germany), and WonenBreburg (Holland) to identify, share and promote best practice and innovation in the sector across Europe.

Chief Executive Gareth Swarbrick said: “As a forward thinking organisation we have been interested in looking at and learning from European models of social and affordable housing for some time now. We are pleased to have been approached by European colleagues and to have successfully established this group.”

Over the coming months the group will look at issues including governance and the role of tenants and other community members in the decision making process; organisational structures; funding and investment.

“As well as looking in detail at how other organisations work we also see this Group as providing a mechanism for applying for any European grant funding which specifically requests a pan-European criterion,” said Gareth. “The first outcome from this work has been a consortium bid for funding to support pilot schemes on ‘smart metering’ of energy and water consumption.”

He adds that to date one of the most striking features of this group is how much all the housing providers have in common in terms of the issues they are trying to address.

“Our commonality is what strikes me most,” he said. “However, I have already seen new ideas from Europe that could be adopted in the UK.

“All our European partners have carried out some really important and innovative work around energy efficiency, energy consumption and reducing tenants’ energy bills. This is an area that we will be seeking to learn from so that our tenants can derive some real tangible benefits from this project.”

It is anticipated that RBH will host a meeting of the Group in Rochdale in early 2011.

Posted at 17^th June 2010