Details of the Workshops that were held in respect of the Private Sector Leasing Scheme
Summary
This report highlights the actions taken to hold the workshops with landlords and other key stakeholders that was a key milestone in the Private Sector Leasing Scheme project.
Further Information
As part of the project to establish a model for a private sector leasing scheme one of the key milestones was to hold workshops for landlords/local authorities and other stakeholders. The purpose being to find out what would attract them to participate in a leasing scheme.
The model is being developed throughout the Greater Haven Gateway (sub-region) and includes the Councils in the following areas:
To ensure that as many landlords as possible from all over the region would participate it was decided to hold the workshops in Needham Market, (relatively close to Mid Suffolk, Ipswich and Suffolk Coastal areas), Colchester ( to take in Colchester, Tendring and Babergh; although Babergh landlords could also get to Needham Market easily too) and Chelmsford to take in Maldon and Braintree.
Colne asked Councils if they would be willing to let us have the names and addresses of landlords that they had gathered from their landlord’s forums and also from those stated on Housing Benefit application forms. This request was refused due to Data Protection issues. However Mid Suffolk District Council, Suffolk Coastal District Council, Maldon District Council and Braintree District Council all agreed to contact their landlords and ask permission for their details to be forwarded on to Colne. (Tendring District Council was undertaking their own exercise with their landlords but couldn’t get letters out prior to the workshops being held. They did agree to pass on details of any landlord who contacted them about private sector leasing.
In addition to this Colne contacted several Registered Social Landlords around the region to ask for their support as well as having articles and a radio interview to advertise the project and giving a contact name and telephone number of whom they could contact for more information.
As a result 124 landlord’s names and addresses of landlords were forwarded on to Colne. Each one was written to detailing the purpose of the workshops together with dates and times and stating the general area but not the exact venue (so that Colne could control numbers attending the event for Health and Safety reasons and to ensure that people didn’t just turn up on the evening).
A choice of venue was given to everyone with an option to state their second choice in case their first option was full. It was made clear to all that free car parking was available at each of the events. An agenda of how the evening was structured was also sent out with this letter.
All events took place in the evening as the perception was that landlords would probably have day jobs and wouldn’t want to attend at that time.
76 landlords in total responded to Colne's letter and requested more information about the workshops. All 76 where sent an invitation for the workshop of their choice.
The figures of those who actually attended are:
Needham Market 17 (another 5 landlords expressed their apologies at not being available to attend)
Chelmsford 10 (and another 5 apologies were received)
Colchester 11 (and another 4 apologies were received).
All those who apologised expressed their continued interest in the Scheme.
On the night 2 landlords left the Chelmsford workshop after the Presentation giving the reason that they expected to receive information from Colne about what rent they could expect to receive for their property if they leased it out under the Scheme and one landlord left the Colchester workshop following the Presentation as he stated that he had a bad experience with private sector leasing and he didn’t want to be involved with it any further. He was unwilling to share his bad experience with the group.
Facilitators were requested to help at each event and the following councils provided help on the night:
Mid Suffolk (1 facilitator)
Colchester (1)
Tendring (2)
Maldon (2)
A further facilitator was provided at two of the events in addition to the Project Manager (who attended all three) by Colne Housing Society.
In addition Mid Suffolk kindly offered their Council Chamber for use to hold one of the Workshops and this was gratefully accepted.
Lots of good ideas and helpful information was discussed that was useful in producing the model. You can download the findings of the Workshops.
It is the intention that all those landlords who attended a workshop and requested an invitation will be invited to attend the launch Conference later in the year and receive a CD Rom of what has been produced.
Downloads
Workshop Presentation
Invitation
Workshop Letter
Agenda
Briefing Notes for Facilitators
Findings of the Workshops
External Links
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