RBH set to complete mutual change

50-up! RBH's 50-year tenants celebrate with Noel Chambers, Chair of the RBH Board, and Gareth Swarbrick, RBH Chief Executive

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Tenant and employee members of Rochdale Boroughwide Housing (RBH) have voted overwhelmingly to complete the change to a mutual organisation, with ownership resting solely in the hands of tenants and employees.

At the recent Special General Meeting of RBH at the Middleton Arena, members formally voted to adopt the 'mutual rules' which will mark the end of the transitional arrangements put in place when RBH took over ownership of the homes previously owned by Rochdale Council.

Gareth Swarbrick, Chief Executive of RBH said: "I'm extremely proud that RBH is the first housing mutual to be owned by both tenants and employees, and we're determined to ensure that the new arrangements allow our tenants, employees and local communities to shape their own destiny."

RBH will now become a mutual owned solely by tenants and employees on 26 June 2013; this meets the promise that RBH made to tenants that the process would be completed within 15 months of the transfer.

Prior to the vote, RBH members were addressed by the special guest speaker, Ed Mayo, Chief Executive of Co-operatives UK, and presentations were made to a number of tenants who have held the same tenancy for 50 uninterrupted years.

RBH members were also asked to nominate their charity of the year for 2013 and, following a vote, Springhill Hospice was announced as the nominated charity.