Article: Self Financing Article Body Welcome to the self-financing home page In this section you will find a number of links to relevant documentation that will help to answer any questions you may have regarding the Government's proposals for the self financing of council housing services. Barnsley Council Information To help tenants understand the proposals for the self financing of council housing services the Council issued a Communication statement from the 5th of July 2010 from the Council. The statement introduces the idea of self financing and sets out the background to how housing services are financed. It also sets out how the Council went about evaluating the proposal to see if self financing offered a strong future for council housing services and standards in Barnsley. In May 2010 the Council wrote a letter to all tenants explaining self financing. The letter included: some of the frequently asked questions and answers; set out the actions taken by the Council in preparing to respond to the Governments consultation; and offered tenants the opportunity to find out more by attending the Customer Panel meeting in May 2010. For more information see Barnsley Council letter to tenants answering questions regarding self-financing and the Communication statement from the 5th of March 2010 from the Council as this includes a summary of Barnsley Councils findings as well as a link to the formal response to the self-financing consultation that was made to the Government in July 2010. In February 2011 the Government announced a revised self financing settlement to all local authorities that have Council owned homes. Officers from the Council and Berneslai Homes worked through the details in order to: understand the proposals; the implications for Barnsley; and to revise the proposed Business Plan ready to go live in April 2012. The self financing settlement is only one part of the plan to ensure we keep Council Homes decent and services of the highest quality. The second part of the plan is: who will deliver the services? Currently Berneslai Homes manage homes on behalf of the Council. Looking ahead we had to decide: should we continue with Berneslai Homes or return direct management to the Council? In conjunction with Barnsley Tenants and Residents Federation the Council has done a qualitative assessment on service delivery using criteria that tenants and stakeholders told us was important to them. These were listed under four headings, Localism, Governance, Operational and Financial. We held workshops to evaluate the criteria which were attended by project officers, specialists and tenants and residents. On 25 May 2011 the Council considered the Cabinet Report ALMO Futures which provides the details and outcomes from the evaluation process. Following consideration of this report the Council recommended that further consultation should take place with all the key stakeholders on the preferred option for the future delivery of housing services. This is for the management and maintenance of council dwellings to continue to be delivered by the Council's Arms Length Management Organisation (ALMO), Berneslai Homes. A further report on the ALMO Futures Self Financing Implementation was presented in August 2011 to provide feedback on the outcomes from the consultation and also to provide an update to members on the impact of the revised self financing settlement on the 30 Year Business Plan . Following Council's approval of the ALMO Futures Self Financing Implementation report in August 2011 the action plan, set out in this report, on how the self financing regime would be implemented has been progressed. This report also gave approval for the Council to start the process of re-negotiate the contract with Berneslai Homes as it was agreed that they should continue to deliver the housing services in Barnsley. The existing contract with Berneslai Homes is due to expire in November 2012. However, the Council has agreed that it would be sensible to start a new contract at the same time as the new financing arrangements commence in April 2012. A series of further reports were prepared and considered by the Council on 18 January 2012. These included the following reports: the Housing Revenue Account Self Financing Draft Settlement November 2011, which provides details of the draft settlement and identifies the impact on the 30 year Self Financing Business Plan; the Delivery Plan 2012-16, which sets out the Council's expectations on how the housing services will be delivered under the new self financing regime; and the Bereneslai Homes Services Agreement Renewal 2012, which sets out the revised contractual obligations between the Council and Berneslai Homes and reflects the new self financing regime. Government Documentation In March 2008 the Government launched a review of council housing and rents policy, this review was jointly undertaken by HM Treasury and Communities and Local Government with extensive input from stakeholders. This was followed by the publication of the Communities and Local Government Reform of council housing finance: Consultation documents in July 2009. The Communities and Local Government publication Self-financing of council housing services: Summary of findings of a modelling exercise reports on the findings of a project to examine the costs, benefits and practicalities of allowing local authorities to leave the Housing Revenue Account subsidy system. (Published March 2008) The consultation documentation from Communities and Local Government Council housing: A real future (Prospectus) set out the detailed proposals from the Government for reforming council housing finance and sought the views of councils on implementing this new system. (Published March 2010) A summary of the responses to the consultation paper has been published by Communities and Local Government. In October 2010 the Government announced they would change the law to introduce self financing and it was included in the Localism Bill in November 2011. On the 1st February 2011 the Government released details of the mandatory self financing settlements. General Information Regular updates on self financing are included in Open House publications. Next Steps Having secure the Council's approval in January 2012 for a new contract to be entered into with Berneslai Homes to commence at the same time as the new Self Financing regime for the Housing Revenue Account this will now be actioned and the new arrangements will be implemented from 1 April 2012. Contact Email: Strategichousing@barnsley.gov.uk or customerservices@berneslaihomes.co.uk Phone: 01226 774376 Related Information www.taroe.org.uk/- are a tenant led organisation and aim to improve the quality, accessibility and affordability of housing in the regulated housing sector, and to improve and protect the quality of life, social and environmental conditions for everyone in our local communities.