BCP Council is set to take on the management of all the council housing across Bournemouth and Poole.

The full council has approved the formation of a single in-house service governed by an advisory board.

The council is to end the current agreement with Poole Housing Partnership (PHP) who currently manage Poole council housing stock, with the new single in-house service to be established by BCP Council from 1 July.

Cllr Karen Rampton, portfolio holder for People and Homes, said: “By creating one service it gives the opportunity to bring best practice and expertise from both PHP and Bournemouth’s housing team and engage with and enable our residents to be at the heart of shaping the new service, now, and in the future.

“In leading up to this decision, we have been working very closely with tenants, leaseholders, staff and other stakeholders throughout this process, including carrying out a 12-week public consultation to hear all feedback on our proposals. This has been really important to ensure that we develop a service model that best meets the needs of our tenants and leaseholders as well as aligning with the council’s transformation plans to improve, modernise and make our services more efficient.”

Council housing in the Bournemouth area is currently managed in-house by BCP Council, whilst in Poole it is managed by Poole Housing Partnership (PHP), an Arm’s Length Management Organisation (ALMO), although the council owns the homes and holds ultimate responsibility for the housing stock.

The council owns approximately 9,500 properties that make up its social housing stock and services to these are funded and managed through its Housing Revenue Account (HRA). These homes are situated across multiple wards and deliver general need, sheltered and extra care homes, as well as some shared ownership properties. There are also a further 1,139 leasehold homes that fall within the management responsibility of the HRA. There are no council owned properties in Christchurch as these were transferred to a Housing Association many years ago.