Oldham MBC completed its housing stock transfer of over 12,000 homes to First Choice Homes Oldham Limited, the Council's Arms Length Management Organisation (ALMO) in February 2011.
 
In addition to the complexities involved in housing stock transfer, the deal involved negotiations with the Council's shared services provider over disengagement issues, and with its PFI teams over the interface between the stock transfer and the housing and streetlighting PFI projects. In addition, this was one of the first transfers to an ALMO and raised a raft of further issues including staff and pension matters.
 
The housing stock transfer will now unlock £150,000,000 of investment into Oldham over the next five years and creates a new partnership which has already started work on new regeneration projects.
 
The project demanded a wide remit of legal expertise and an expert team from across the firm was formed to ensure every requirement was met.  The lead housing team at Cobbetts advised on funding, housing agreements and with the property aspects of transferring the 12,000 homes and ancillary property, the disclosures to the property warranties and the leases of office accommodation.  Other areas included procurement, tax, employment, pensions and data protection advice, state aid and charity law issues.

 
The transfer took 18 months to complete and demonstrates Cobbetts' ability to undertake and deliver major projects.

For further information contact:

David Isaacson

0845 404 2230