Pinnacle Group takes on management of Millbrook House in Harlow
News / Tue 22nd Jul 2025 at 09:57am
HOUSING provider Pinnacle Group has taken on three contracts with local authorities across the South East, bringing an additional 342 homes under its management reports Property Weekly.
Harlow Council has appointed Pinnacle to manage 172 homes at Millbrook Studios north of Harlow town centre, including affordable and open-market rental homes.
Pinnacle will be responsible for services including lettings, property management, security, concierge and facilities management.
Claire Kober, managing director, homes at Pinnacle Group, told PW: “These new partnerships reflect our growing role in supporting local authorities to deliver safe, affordable and well-managed homes.
“We are proud to be trusted by councils across the country to help meet the housing needs of their communities and look forward to providing our market-leading services.”
AB
2025-07-22 10:40:17
Great, outsourcing, what could possibly go wrong.
Dan Swords
2025-07-22 11:37:02
The comments are entirely misleading. Let's be absolutely clear: the council owns the block. Every flat is for a Harlow person. The council stopped Newham Council buying this to ensure that every home is for a Harlow person. We achieved that in a way that puts no debt on the council. None of that has changed - the only difference is that the council doesn't provide a 24/7 concierge service or specialist property management so we have appointed a specialist company to do that. The complete and utter nonsense to suggest anything other than that is just lies. This is a fantastic achievement for the town and for residents - your council stopped Newham Council buying this to house their homeless and ensured that all 172 apartments are for Harlow people. I think that is something residents should celebrate and those spreading pure misinformation ought to be ashamed.
Stuart
2025-07-22 12:12:23
Dan - a question I've asked of you a few times. If there are flats available for open-market rental, how do you stop someone from, say, Bishop's Stortford or London or anywhere else from tenanting them? I'm not aware of any mechanism that permits you to discriminate based on location for properties available on the open market. Can you please confirm how you are able to do this rather than continuously avoiding the question - repeating the same statement with no evidence of how this can be legally implemented is not an answer!
Resident
2025-07-22 13:29:12
Hopefully people who have been on the housing list for significant years will be offered this housing, but it does seem disingenuous for Dan Swords to say all the flats are for local people only when a percentage is available on the open rental market
Nicholas Taylor
2025-07-22 13:40:46
Dan, so following on from what Stuart has asked, will you answer the following which you have been asked numerous times in the past? 1) When you say the flats on the open market will be offered to Harlow residents, does that mean that they have to have lived in Harlow for at least 7 years as required of those who are allocated a home from the councils Housing Register.? If not how long does an applicant have to have lived in Harlow? 2) Can you confirm that those being allocated from the Councils Housing Register are only being offered a tenancy/lease for five years? If not, what sort of tenancy/lease are they being offered?
Tim
2025-07-22 14:47:00
Just another eyesore in a seriously overcrowded town not to mention the useless roadworks that will not be any help once finished, how is the new live theatre coming along dan , start work by 2040 maybe
Tim
2025-07-22 14:52:41
And what about the waste ground where little walk used to be, now been nearly 15 years since that was pulled down, loads of empty shops inside the Harvey centre including bhs and wilkos stores
Tim
2025-07-22 14:54:25
It's easier to travel to westfield stratford for a decent day out rather than spend it in harlow
Seamus
2025-07-22 15:02:41
"The comments are entirely misleading. Let's be absolutely clear: the council owns the block. Every flat is for a Harlow person." Dan, this simply isn't true. You've said only a third of the appartments are for those on Harlows social housing waiting list. The rest are open market rentals. Unless you are saying as the owner that you are turning down people from outside Harlow who are willing to pay the private rental rates? Could you please clarify? Given the council must produce honest and open accounts due to accountability rules, could you tell us how much and how the Pinnacle group are being paid?
Gary Roberts
2025-07-22 19:53:24
Will this company decide who will occupy the flats? If so what is their terms of reference to do so? What checks are made by the council to see if they are being met? And if this company offer a flat to a non-Harlow person what happens to the resident? A legal minefield I suspect with no winners in every case. The answer is of course to give the flats to those on the housing needs register: Isn't it?
Chel
2025-07-23 05:37:29
"Those spreading pure misinformation ought to be ashamed" Dan swords words,not mine,and this has come from the leader of the council. It is you Dan Swords that ought to be ashamed. All this restore pride,re build our town and all the rest of it,you do noy have a clue. You will never ever re store pride in a Town that has now been far too overbuilt and far too overpopulated. The paving/ roadworks are bodged and the newbuilds are vile,they look like toy houses.Far too many high rise buildings now,less and less privacy and i dont think u even know what the older original housing estates in Harlow look like.you treat us residents like fools,its you that is a fool and a liar. You ought to be ashamed of yourself.
gary roberts
2025-07-23 06:23:14
Where is the evidence that these homes will go to "Harlow people"? Where is the evidence that these homes will go to those on the housing needs register? Where is the evidence that these "council" homes will still be council homes in ten years if that? To answer clearly and positively on any of these questions the right to buy council homes must be abolished now. The Burnt Mills flat development clearly shows that in that only 52 [30%] of those flats were earmarked for people on the housing needs register. Perhaps Cllr Swords can answer those reasonable questions? Will he? Can he? I have my doubts. And now the former Potter Street neighbourhood office will be destroyed leaving the area no chance of restoring local council services. Sadly the people voted last May for its removal: was it a case of apathy?
Stuart
2025-07-23 07:51:50
Came here this morning hoping for a response to my question from Dan Swords, but I'm shocked, shocked I tell you, to discover that after his bombastic post he's nowhere to be seen. Obviously I'm not - I never expected a response because I already know the answer - you cannot guarantee a property on the open market will go to a person from a particular place. The only way you can do that is for them to be social tenants - and these flats are not being let as social tenancies. Disappearing Dan does it again - shouts a word salad then runs off into the distance being pursued by questions he has no intention of answering, as it would demonstrate that he's being 'economical with the truth'. We deserve better from our elected representatives. The truth would be nice!
David Forman
2025-07-23 08:05:33
I thought Harlow Council ran a property management company looking after council tenants and has its own property maintenance company called HTS. So, why line the pockets of Pinnacle Group?
David Forman
2025-07-23 08:10:22
It is interesting that at a recent Cabinet meeting the decision was taken to self manage the running of the cafe in the new Cultural Quarter and looking in future to run Spurrier's House cafe in the Town Park as an in-house operation. Therefore, if running operations in-house for cafés is better value, why not so with running property management?
David Forman
2025-07-23 08:24:26
See how the council's logic of running three café operations in-house is better value in agenda item 21 of June's Cabinet meeting. Look on pages 1 and 2 of https://moderngov.harlow.gov.uk/documents/s28543/Cabinet%20report%20-%20In-house%20Catering%20Options.pdf
Chel
2025-07-23 11:08:05
Well said Stuart 👍I agree with everything you have said in your comment.
Marie
2025-07-23 11:36:20
I'm amazed Dan swords even commented on here. But as is the norm no response to these very valid Questions, come on Dan let's have some clarity to the Questions asked and give us the honest answers or are you taking a leaf out of the likes of our MP and government who dance around answers to valid questions.
Mickaic
2025-07-23 12:11:05
Well looking like somewhere nice for the bell inn in Epping to move into
Wendy Morley
2025-07-23 13:20:18
What Harlow people will they be for then, my son was on the list for housing lived here all his life, you decided to take him off the list for no reason, no explanation.
Gwyneth Thomas
2025-07-23 13:49:45
We have Pinnacle as one of our contractors in Milton Keynes and they are fantastic.
Nicholas Taylor
2025-07-23 19:39:03
Readers will note that Cllr Swords responded to this article within two hours. But to date, after 31 hours since being asked questions by Stuart and I, there has been no response from him.
Chel
2025-07-24 10:39:37
Very true Nichas Taylor. We are treated like fools.
Chel
2025-07-24 10:40:33
Nicholas Taylor,sorry for spelling mistake.
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