It started off as a Surma Housing Co-operative day trip – organised as part of a community cohesion initiative for Asian and white communities in the Canalside area. Before they knew it, says community housing officer Zahid Hussain, several other housing associations had joined in. “We needed four coaches in the end,” he says with relish.

It’s a good 15 years since Rochdale first held up its collective hand and admitted it was not doing enough for Asian residents. Today, the evidence of change is all around: a thriving specialist housing association and co-op, a new estate that is bringing Asian and white communities together, a housing training scheme for Asian employees and a host of initiatives to combat racism and foster cohesion.

Housing associations, the council and communities in Rochdale have stuck to the task and kept their long-term goals firmly in sight. They are working to a ground-breaking strategy, Living in Rochdale in 2011, designed to take them up to the next census. The ambitious target is to eradicate the housing and related disadvantages suffered by black and minority ethnic communities.

The agencies began by asking residents what they wanted and needed. One urgent need uncovered was new homes for Bangladeshi families. Many were living in very overcrowded conditions but no large housing was available in their traditional home area. Asian families were reluctant to move into new areas, however, because they feared harassment or wanted to stay near their families, shops and neighbourhoods.

Rochdale Council, Rochdale Development Agency, Northern Counties Housing Association, Ashiana Housing Association, the Housing Corporation and other agencies got together to devise the Canalside development as a response. It has 109 new homes on formerly derelict land, including some with up to seven bedrooms.

Surma manages 64 homes on the Canalside development with support from Ashiana and Northern Counties Housing Associations. There was no shortage of families wanting to take up the brand new homes, which are within walking distance of Asian shops and a proposed new doctors’ surgery.

A crucial ingredient for success, says the council’s housing policy and research manager, Faisal Butt, was a newly established Community Induction Programme (CIP). This special unit supported the prospective residents both before and after they moved in.

“We believe the CIP played a pivotal role in giving a BME group the confidence to move outside a traditional area. As a direct result of this support we now have a very sustainable mixed community and this has helped to regenerate the whole area,” Faisal says.

Find out more
www.surmahousingcoop.co.uk

Black and minority ethnic action plan
The Housing Corporation’s black and minority ethnic (BME) action plan includes:
• working in close partnership with Government departments and agencies, stakeholders and local authorities, to highlight the needs of BME groups;
• ensuring that monitoring and definitions are kept up to date and reflect the needs and challenges facing the housing association sector;
• using regulatory powers to act against unlawful discrimination and promote equality of opportunity;
• publishing data on housing association performance to help promote improvement in practice across the sector; and
• promoting BME associations and ensuring that their role and potential is recognised and valued across the sector.

View the action plan here (link to http://www.housingcorp.gov.uk/server/show/conWebDoc.3843/changeNav/440)