Cheltenham Borough Council to take back the management of its homes

By Peter Davison

19 October 2023

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Cheltenham Borough Council is taking back control of its housing stock by closing Cheltenham Borough Homes

Cheltenham Borough Council is taking back control of its housing stock by closing Cheltenham Borough Homes, its wholly-owned arms-length management firm.

The management of housing services will move back to the responsibility of Cheltenham Borough Council, after 20 years of CBH.

The decision was unanimously agreed on Tuesday evening (17 October) at a meeting of cabinet.

Councillors supported the decision to close the council’s wholly-owned, arms length management company, Cheltenham Borough Homes (CBH), due to increasing financial pressures and a changing regulatory framework.

Current CBH tenants, leaseholders and customers will not be adversely affected by the changes and, as part of a full consultation process, will be given the opportunity to state their priorities in shaping future housing services.

Councillor Rowena Hay, leader at Cheltenham Borough Council said: "Now that cabinet has agreed to the recommendations, we can start to move forward with our plans to bring the two organisations together as one.

"In doing so, I believe that we have much better opportunity to work directly with tenants, leaseholders and colleagues to develop best practise, shape future housing needs and grow communities so they continue to thrive.

"It’s so important to us that customers continue to influence housing priorities now and into the future. We will consult with them on what the future of our housing services will look like beyond the transitionary period.

"Ultimately, we are answerable to our customers, so their voice is critical in how we shape the future delivery of our housing services.

Cllr Hay continued: "The cost of living crisis has also placed significant financial pressures on the provision of services.

"This crisis has come at a time when we have set out ambitious plans to deliver more affordable homes, and to be carbon net zero by 2030.

"In order to help meet these aims, and to ensure that we continue to provide even more quality homes and invest in our communities long into the future, we have to change the way we do things.

"Cheltenham Borough Homes has been at the heart of Cheltenham communities for 20 years. I would like to thank them for all that they have done in that time."

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During the transitionary period, customers can continue to report issues including repairs, neighbourhood concerns and complaints in exactly the same way as before; that is directly to CBH.

The council said that over time customers will benefit from:

A direct link into the council
A more streamlined customer journey – for instance housing, waste, recycling, council tax, benefits, will all be managed through one organisation
A potential for the council to combine teams so that they work more efficiently within neighbourhoods, so that knowledge is shared, duplication is avoided and services are efficient and more resilient.

By Peter Davison

Peter Davison is deputy editor of The Business Magazine. He has spent his life in journalism – doing work experience in newsrooms in and around Bristol while still at school, and landing his first job on a local newspaper aged 19. By 28 he was the youngest newspaper editor in the country.

An early advocate of online news, he spent the first years of the 2000s telling his bosses that the internet posed both the biggest opportunity and greatest threat to the newspaper industry and the art of journalism. He was right on both counts.

Since 2006 he has enjoyed a career as a freelance journalist. He lives in rural Wiltshire with one wife, two children, and three cats.