20th Anniversary

Wednesday 11th February 2009

December 2008 marks the 20th anniversary of the transfer of some 4,500 homes and families from Chiltern District Council to the Chiltern Hundreds Housing Association. This was the first ever large-scale transfer in the UK.

The CHHA is now part of Paradigm Housing Group, based in Amersham. We have come a long way since then in terms of our size, the number of homes we provide, our repairs and investment activities, development programme and importantly the opportunities for our customers to influence and shape both the homes in which they live and the services we deliver for them.

A few interesting facts:

* we still have over 800 tenants that were part of the original transfer
* our maintenance budget for 1990/91 was just £3m - last year it was nearly £18m
* we have 11 original members of staff still with us - with almost 500 years of housing experience between them
* from starting in one area we now have relationships with over 40 local authorities
* we have bought over 3,000 properties and built nearly 5,000 more since transfer - at a cost of just over £650m
* ... and in case you were wondering how we only have around 11,000 homes now - it's because over 1,200 of our customers are now home owners under ‘right to buy'
* our tenants are amongst the warmest in the country as all our properties now have cavity wall insulation and at least 200mm of loft insulation - with around eight out of 10 homes having double glazing as well
* we have given hundreds of thousands of pounds and tens of thousands of hours supporting community projects and initiatives
* over 90% of our homes now meet the Government's Decent Homes standard
* last year we provided new homes to five households every working day

Posted by 0 for Paradigm Homes Charitable Housing Association Ltd.