Potential job losses at Rochdale Boroughwide Housing

Rochdale Boroughwide Housing

Employees at Rochdale Boroughwide Housing (RBH) are facing potential redundancy as a loss of income, due to the Government's policy of reducing social housing rents, hits the mutual housing society.

A spokesperson for RBH said: "In the 2015 summer budget, the Chancellor announced that social housing rents would be cut by 1% each year for four years, starting in 2016. This was a surprise and could not have been anticipated, as the Government had only recently agreed a 10 year deal on rents for housing associations.

"Whilst this is a welcome reduction for many of our tenants, the loss of income from rent creates severe challenges for RBH. We will need to save a total of £6m each and every year from 2018, phased in from 2016.

"As a mutual housing society, owned by our tenant and employee members, we are determined to face these challenges in line with our mutual values. As a result, our process has taken a very different approach to many other landlords. We have engaged with and listened to our members and worked with our partners to look at how we can best provide our services with big reductions in the resources available.

"Over the course of this week, all RBH employees have been briefed face-to-face on both our long term strategy and our proposals for how we can deliver the £6m a year savings target. The Chairs of our Board and our Representative Body have written personally to each employee. Over the coming weeks, these proposals will be looked at in greater detail with final plans subject to a consultation period starting in March.

"Achieving annual savings of £6m will require difficult decisions and will inevitably impact on the services provided by RBH and on the number of people we employ. We are proud of the dedication and commitment shown by our employees at such a challenging time and we are determined to make decisions on RBH's future in line with our mutual values and by engaging with our tenant and employee members."