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Local Management Agreements enable council residents to take
charge of local housing services. CityWest Homes in partnership
with the Department for Communities and Local Government and PPCR
(an agency which supports tenant involvement) has developed a
toolkit which gives you everything you need to agree and set
up a Local Management Agreement (LMA) for your area. It's also
a guide for Council staff, and a model for other housing providers
to use.
In Westminster, pilot agreements have been established for
gardening, cleaning and caretaking services. The Government was so
impressed with what we had created they decided to embrace this
initiative and include LMAs on the national stage to sit alongside
the option to set up a tenant management organisation.
How do they work?
CityWest Homes pays a group of residents a sum of money to
manage a service. This sum is equivalent to the cost of CityWest
Homes managing the services. Any savings made by residents in
carrying out the work remains with the residents and can be
reinvested into the block or estate in areas decided by you!
Of course it's not just about handing over the money. In
developing the LMA we will ensure that:
- residents effected by the agreement are fully consulted
- residents delivering the service are competent to do so
- residents who deliver the service receive the necessary training, especially around health and safety
- that adequate insurances are in place
- services are monitored against a set of agreed standards
The residents can carry out the service by:
- doing the work on a voluntary basis
- employing a contractor to do the work
- employing someone direct to do the work
You are in a good position to make sure that the services you
receive are good value for money and are carried out to a high
standard.
On the Porchester Estate where we introduced a pilot agreement
for grounds maintenance the following feedback was
received. "We really appreciate the
effort that is being put in we no longer have a contractor, we have
a gardener who enjoys working for us and we are slowly bringing the
garden back to life"
The resident involvement team can give you lots of help to set
up an agreement. This includes drawing up a 'specification', which
sets out the standards the service must meet, sorting out insurance
and drawing up the agreement itself.
For a summary of the toolkit you can click on the
WHO WHAT WHY and
HOW buttons on the righthand side of this
page
Alternatively you can download a copy of the toolkit called Taking Charge. (398KB) 