East Kent Housing staff and services to transfer to councils at the end of September

The staff at East Kent Housing (EKH) and the services it provides are set to transfer to the four councils that own it at close of play on 30 September this year.

EKH currently manages a total of more than 17,000 properties on behalf of Canterbury City Council, Dover District Council, Folkestone & Hythe District Council and Thanet District Council.

The decision to break it up was made by councillors at all  four councils at the start of the year following a consultation with tenants.

The move was prompted by a series of health and safety failings discovered at some of the properties that EKH was managing for the councils.

Since then an enormous amount of work has been undertaken to address those failings and regular updates have been provided to the Regulator for Social Housing.

In a statement, the Chief Executives from the four councils – Colin Carmichael, Nadeem Aziz, Susan Priest and Madeline Homer –  said: “We have been determined to ensure the transfer of staff and services from EKH back to the councils happens as quickly as humanly possible in the interest of tenants and to end the uncertainty for EKH staff who are doing an incredible job in very trying circumstances.

“Council officers and senior managers at EKH have been working hard in the background to put all of the arrangements in place and we are now in a position to proceed at pace.

“A determination to retain EKH staff, minimise redundancies and work closely with all staff has always been at the heart of the process.

“There will be more jobs available across the four councils than people currently employed by EKH.

“We also hope many of the agency staff who have been vital in supporting the organisation during this period of fundamental change will want to go and work for one of the four councils when the services transfer and we will be working with them to make that happen.”

Published: 24 April 2020