Witton Lodge Community Association: making a success of community ownership

In the 1990s, residents of Perry Common in the West Midlands, especially those who had lived there all their lives, came in for a shock!  Almost one thousand homes in this area of predominantly social housing in north Birmingham were declared structurally unsound and were set to face demolition. Residents were left devastated when they realised it was possible they may be relocated to other areas across Birmingham. However, several residents decided there was an alternative. They got together to found the Witton Lodge Community Association in 1994. This case study documents the transformation that this resident-led initiative has made to the homes and quality of life of the people in Perry Common.

As homes were demolished and residents displaced the four resident associations decided to merge in order to create a new association.

The key objectives of the new community association were:

•  To preserve the community of Perry Common
• To help create a sustainable community
• To improve the local environment
• To build social rented homes for those in need
• To empower local residents

Inspired by the creation of a new kind of community association in nearby Acock’s Green, members of each of the four residents associations in Perry Common were appointed as the inaugural Resident Directors of Witton Lodge Community Association (WLCA), a Company Limited by Guarantee and also registered as a Charity.

A sustainable model that can be funded

A financial agreement was made by the Community Association with Birmingham City Council to fund a 30 year plan that ensured money raised from selling land for homes to own would be passed to the association to build social housing for rent.  Also, additional funds were borrowed from Nationwide Building Society to facilitate further the Community Association’s operating model. This process was enabled by the hard work of one of the Witton Lodge Community Association’s partners, Anthony Collins Solicitors, who developed a model in which the land was gifted to the Community Association, against which capital could be raised to commission the building of new homes. Accessible land value at the time was fundamental to the financial viability of this model. This model acted as a forerunner to the Community Land Trust model, which is a form of land ownership where a private non-profit organisation acquires and holds land, putting controls in place which ensure that it can only be used for the benefit of local residents.  Income for the Association came from grants, rents from homes, and ground rents from properties sold. This 30 year plan meant enough funds would be generated throughout the life of the project to ensure proper repairs and maintenance, so that housing quality would not degenerate.

Partnership working

The success of the Community Association in allowing community led re-development has relied upon the creation of a strong working partnership. Birmingham City Council has been a key founding partner due to their ownership of land and the provision of services. Anthony Collins Solicitors provided critically important legal advice in setting up the Association. Subsequently, Anthony Collins Solicitors and Tyndallwoods have established legal agreements that ensure the smooth running of the Association. Nationwide Building Society has helped to provide capital. Local housing associations (Servite Houses (now Viridian), Bromford Housing Group, John Groom Housing Association) have developed new homes.  Relations with the local churches, the police and other voluntary organisations have been developed to achieve wider community objectives.

Building on the skills and talents of the local community

When WLCA was created, eight Resident Directors were delegated from those who had been most proactive in the four previous associations to represent the community until the first elections could be held. No ballot was needed for the first election because numbers nominated did not exceed places available.  The Board now have 8 Resident Directors and 4 Institutional Directors all of whom are unsalaried.

The new Community Association meant that residents could strongly influence the redevelopment of the estate.  By having Resident Directors regularly attend site meetings, residents were well aware they had a channel through which they could feed their concerns and priorities and get changes made. Moreover, residents themselves have had a major input into the development of new properties through outlining the brief and standards to be met - and by overseeing the work done in order to ensure they get what they ordered! Here are two simple but effective examples of how residents have affected design to make it more ‘fit for purpose’. One was when a resident noticed that windows planned for new houses were made up of a number of tiny panes of glass – pretty to look at but a chore to clean. She went to the architect and explained the problem, and the plans were changed. Again, some letterboxes were designed to be near the bottom of doors, which would have posed a real difficulty for older or immobile people besides the poor postman! Following a resident’s suggestion, letterboxes were moved to a sensible height.

Training was a daily event for activists and included residential sessions together with council officers and elected members. Indeed, it is still an on-going feature of local involvement; moreover, residents still attend site meetings and have learnt to speak up as the following local resident testifies:

One official said to me: ”I won’t give you a copy of this document, you won’t understand It.” I may not have but it made me determined to have a go. By working alongside officers we learned that we could get our point across without being nasty about it. It doesn’t take much to make you feel empowered.”

Another resident exclaimed: “Getting them to put a ladies’ toilet on the building site for our use when we asked for it was a real achievement!”

The overall attitude of residents was well expressed by one who said that, without WCLA: “... we just wouldn’t be here… we have exceeded everybody’s expectations … even ours!”

Meeting housing need

Without the resident-led model of community ownership that has evolved into Witton Lodge Community Association, it would have been more difficult to find suitable homes for the 908 families who were displaced by demolition of the structurally unsound council properties. Potentially, most of the community would have been dispersed.   

Integration via allocation

The first people to be rehoused were original residents who wanted to stay in the existing community. However, later other people from the City Council waiting list were offered new homes. By 2000 Witton Lodge Community Association was able to negotiate allocation in partnership with the Council and it now allocates 50% of newly built dwellings, which enables it to exercise more influence and pursue a policy of ‘integration via allocation’. Residents described, for instance, how they were able to sensitively house an extremely vulnerable family in a quiet cul-de-sac where there was a close neighbourhood community at hand to offer support and advice.

As one WCLA member says, allocating property is “not just about rent, it’s about what the new resident’s quality of life is going to be…”

The development is now coming to an end as the last of six phases is being built. Residents are proud that they have been given an opportunity to change the demography of what was once a solely white working class community and now comprises a diverse range of cultures such as Bangladeshi and Chinese residents enabling families to learn from one another other. The 226 homes in the final phase were originally intended solely for home ownership but the developer has had to change tack, partly in response to the economic climate, and it now has both home owners and people living in socially rented properties.

Witton Lodge Community Association is a non-registered housing association that now owns 167 properties including the 40 apartments at Sycamore Court Extra Care Scheme.

Beyond Bricks and Mortar

Partnership working - initially with the local church and later with other statutory and voluntary organisations stimulated a community development approach to the estate that worked beyond bricks and mortar to create a new sense of identity and belonging. Membership of different groups is growing, bringing new ideas to the estate. Evidence of a sustainable and growing community can be seen in landmark achievements that have come about through residents being in the lead:  

• The use of an urban village design, incorporating accessibility (prioritising pedestrians and cyclists), low cost heating, and traffic management.  
• The development of green space for community events and sport and leisure activities, and improved recycling facilities making Perry Common a more  pleasant place to be.
• The development of Sycamore Court as an Extra Care Scheme  for people with specific needs.

The creation of a safer place to live, by rebuilding the relationship with the police and creating a Community Watch Group to help deal with actual and environmental crime, the fear of crime  and anti-social behaviour.

One of the more recent accomplishments has been the successful asset transfer of an under-used community hall, to make up for the previous lack of investment in community facilities.

Overall

An interesting indicator of the success of WCLA is that, quite soon in its life, people who initially had their properties up for sale took them off the market.  Today the area is perceived as a desirable place to live. Void turnover in the general housing properties is low and averages around 5 per annum while turnover at Sycamore Court is higher due to the sometimes frail and elderly nature of the tenants there.

The performance of WCLA can be seen through a number of measures – the level of volunteering, the use of the community hall and mixed tenure.

Volunteering:

• The volunteer base operating within the community hall is currently 31 volunteers - 23 residents in addition to the 8 Resident Directors, who work in various capacities on a voluntary/unsalaried basis. Around another 30 volunteers are available when needed and this number, as well as activities within the hall is growing daily.

Use of Perry Common Community Hall:

• Regular footfall to the hall is approximately 210 persons per week. Some clients attend multiple times, so the actual number of individuals using the hall would be slightly less. This usage can be broken down as follows: 
  • NHS sessions (GP referral only): 45 (patients come to regular health sessions, such as pain management and Pilates classes)
  • Classes open to public:  75
  • Meetings (on average, 2 per week) :  20
  • Parties (on average, 1 per week): 70

Mixed tenure:

There was a strong desire on the part of WCLA to achieve as much ‘affordable social housing’ as possible. All of the Association’s dwellings are built to an extremely high standard. Phased development over 6 stages since 1995/6 has achieved for the total number of units:

• 49% of homes for traditional rent and shared ownership
• 2% projected homes for Private Equity for shared ownership
• 46% projected homes for outright sale
• Approximately 54% total projected affordable homes to be created

WLCA is funded on an ongoing basis by rent from tenants and ground rent from those in new build home ownership properties in addition to modest investment.  It is in a financially robust situation with an income of £870.5K and total spend of £783.3K retaining £87.3K for future use.

Sub-neighbourhood budgets

The residents have found it difficult to get statutory budgets broken down to community level. However their vigilance at the grassroots level has brought some immediate savings. For example, when examining the Schedule of Works for grounds maintenance, residents noticed that a playground included for daily sweeping and inspection at a cost of £1.43 x 5 days per week had actually been removed eight years previously, so they were able to advocate use of the budget elsewhere.

The use of volunteers

Volunteer community development is better illustrated in terms of individual case studies. Resident Directors have noticed that volunteering happens on a continuum, as confidence and skills grow. Benefits from volunteering are not absolute – they are more likely to occur where the volunteering complements the work of salaried staff, such as the Community Engagement Coordinator, Marketing and Communications Officer, Building Supervisors and Office Manager, etc.  With regard to these salaried staff, WCLA has ensured that recruitment for such staff is locally targeted when possible. Some performance indicators regarding volunteer initiatives are more readily available. For instance, during two years of activity from Community Watch (a group of volunteer residents who patrol the streets and offer assistance and information sharing) there has been a 43% reduction in burglaries, 26% reduction in car crime and a 9% drop in assaults. To some extent residents feel “victims of their own success”, as there is now a lower police presence on the estate, thanks to this voluntary action having been so successful in addressing crime and vandalism.

Some of the most important learning points have included:

• Residents have genuinely been in the lead and at the heart of community transformation
• Creative solutions, not just on the part of Birmingham City Council but by the residents themselves, have come from thinking outside the box
• Huge advantages have come from long-term business planning, not just short-term reactions
• Treating the community both as a partner and a resource can bring great achievements
• Building the community from within has led to much more social sustainability: “We would have failed if we had just built houses – we hope we have created homes”
• Economic sustainability of activities on the estate has benefited from developing mixed tenure
• A genuine regeneration partnership with residents at the centre meant looking well beyond issues of just ‘bricks and mortar’

Webpage of the housing association: http://www.wittonlodge.org.uk