RBH members say “yes” to Brighter Horizons transfer

RBH members vote on the resolution at the Special Members Meeting held on Tuesday 21 January at Touchstones

Rochdale Boroughwide Housing (RBH) members have voted to transfer the assets of the wholly-owned development subsidiary Brighter Horizons into the main RBH society, in a move that will save money to spend on front-line services.

Members voted overwhelmingly to approve the plans at a Special Members Meeting on Tuesday 21 January, held at Touchstones. As RBH is a mutual organisation, co-owned by tenant and employee members, members were responsible for the decision, and all members were entitled to vote, either by attending the meeting or by requesting a postal or email ballot.

Edward Carpenter, RBH Governance Manager, said: "I'm very grateful to all the RBH members - tenants and employees - who participated in this decision. I'm pleased that we're living up to our promise that as a mutual, the members are at the heart of the RBH decision-making process."

Brighter Horizons was set up when RBH was part of Rochdale Council to deliver new and refurbished homes for rent and sale that met the growing housing needs in the Borough, and has developed over 70 homes since 2008.

As RBH is now a mutual society and not part of Rochdale Council, a separate Brighter Horizons is no longer needed; now that RBH is established as a mutual housing society it is developing new homes directly.The duplicated cost of maintaining two organisations can be removed, providing additional money to spend on services for RBH tenants. There will be no change in services for the tenants of Brighter Horizons homes.

Clare Tostevin, RBH Head of Strategy and Regeneration, said: "Through Brighter Horizons, RBH has been able to provide much-needed additional homes for local people.

"As a mutual, RBH is now able to build high-quality new homes without the need for a subsidiary. We've already delivered new homes for tenants on Waithlands Road in Newbold and Longridge Drive in Heywood, with more new homes planned across the Borough.

"Bringing Brighter Horizons into RBH means we can save money and use these savings to deliver better services for all our tenants."