Large and Private
In October 2006 the biggest sheltered housing PFI deal in the country was officially signed. Oldham MBC and Oldham Retirement Housing Partnership (OHRP) - Housing 21 - closed the deal which is worth £435 million over 30 years and will see the rebuilding and refurbishment of around 1,500 sheltered homes.
ORHP is the Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) with charitable status which was set up to manage the stock in Oldham and is a wholly owned subsidiary of Housing 21.
Local authorities face enormous challenges in meeting the housing and care needs of older people. Older people want housing and services that promote their independence, rather than those that are over protective and “manage dependency”.
They want to be valued for what they can give as well as what they might receive. Older people want housing and services that include leisure and fun as well as care and support. They want housing and services that can flexibly meet their needs in active and frail older age.
If you link all these requirements with the government drive for health services in the community and the need to modernise sheltered accommodation to bring them up to decent homes standards then the size of the challenge becomes apparent.
The starting point to meet this challenge has to be for local authorities to look at partnership working to meet these needs and working with registered social landlords (RSLs) is one route to achieve this. For Oldham MBC the challenge was to find a way to modernise over half of their sheltered housing stock and they chose Housing 21 as their partner to achieve this.
Housing 21 brought together its project management skills, its track record and expertise in providing housing and care choices for older people plus financial backing from the private sector to put together the package to achieve Oldham’s aims. The Oldham sheltered housing PFI underlines the scope within specialist RSLs to join up housing provision and services with innovative partnerships and financing.
Housing 21, unlike many private sector companies, are well used to commissioning, managing and maintaining thousands of homes for older people. Housing 21 and Oldham MBC spent many months agreeing the standards to be met in both the delivery of the new homes and the way residents will be supported once their new homes are built.
During this time strong links have been forged between the partners and all parties are committed to continuing to work together and ensure that the new homes are amongst the best housing for older people in the country.
Many partners were involved in putting together the sheltered housing PFI - finance has been provided by Allied Irish Bank while KPMG has acted as financial consultants and Devonshires as legal consultants on the project. Bullock Construction Ltd is the building partner.
The refurbishment and rebuilding project itself is made up of around 1,500 sheltered and warden supported properties comprising 854 bungalows, 483 one bed flats and 120 two bed flats.
Bullock will carry out significant modifications and adaptations to kitchens and bathrooms and the internal layout of the properties will be improved to make better use of space and allow wheelchair access.
In the sheltered housing schemes, accessibility, safety and security will be improved through lifts, state-of-the-art call entry and warden call systems. There will also be general improvements to properties such as better heating systems, doors and windows, and external environmental schemes.
A key element of the contract is that extra care provision will be built into eight schemes to enable many older people to remain in their homes, rather than moving to residential care. Extra care schemes are designed to maintain the independence of older people by providing on-site care and support services 24 hours a day should they need them. In addition Housing 21’s extra care schemes are designed to be a vital and integral part of their local community - ensuring that both the residents and all older people in the locality have a place to access services and activities and where they can enjoy life to the full.
The building and refurbishment works are scheduled to take place over a 4 1/2 year time scale, after which Housing 21 will manage the housing and provide support services for the residents under a 30 year contract.
The issues of limited funding, the need to modernise housing to meet national minimum standards and the rising expectations and requirements of older people are not going to go away.
By working together in an innovative and flexible partnership, Oldham MBC and Housing 21 will be providing new and improved housing and care choices which meet modern standards and improve the quality of life for the older people of Oldham.
