Grenfell Firm To Pass Responsibility For Homes To Council

The firm that managed Grenfell Tower says it will hand over responsibility for thousands of properties to the local council. Kensington & Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation (TMO) said it would "temporarily" give control to Kensington and Chelsea Council. The council voted in September to end the contract, a month after the TMO was stripped of responsibility for managing homes in the estate around the tower. The TMO managed almost 10,000 homes. It was heavily criticised after the 14 June fire, in which 71 people died. Read more on the BBC website.

Tenants Seek Legal Advice On Winding Up Of KCTMO

Tenants are seeking “urgent confirmation” that a vote for Kensington and Chelsea Council to become the sole member of KCTMO will be postponed. Following Theresa May’s recent intervention telling residents that KCTMO would no longer manage their homes, the management wrote to tenants and advised them to vote for the TMO to continue for a “limited period” at the annual general meeting tomorrow to allow for “meaningful consultation and an orderly handover of services”. The TMO also proposed the council becomes the sole member of the TMO so that it remains a legal entity while the Grenfell Tower Inquiry is ongoing. Read more on Inside Housing.

Council Votes To Terminate Contract With KCTMO

At its second full council meeting since the Grenfell Tower tragedy in June, the council formally agreed to plans to remove Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation (KCTMO) from the management of almost 10,000 council homes in the borough. Kim Taylor-Smith, deputy leader of the council, said: “Residents of the council, the government and the TMO itself have come to the conclusion that after the tragedy of 15 June the TMO no longer has the trust of residents in the borough. “In light of this we are working with the TMO to terminate the contract with the council.” Read more on Inside Housing.

Newham Accuses TMO Of 'Significant Failure'

Newham Council has accused a tenant management organisation of “significant failure” to manage its finances, in a row over its attempt to dissolve the group. The east London borough has ordered Carpenters Tenant Management Organisation (CTMO) to pay more than £200,000, transferred its staff to the council and moved to end its management license. CTMO is a tenant-run body which has managed the Carpenters Lane Estate in Stratford since 1998. Newham plans a major regeneration of the estate, but has faced high-profile resistance from campaigners supported by CTMO. In a statement, the council said it had decided to end the contract with the TMO and bring services back in house to protect the housing service for tenants. Read the full statement on the Newham Council website.

Council Housing – House of Lords Written Answer

Lord Kennedy of Southwark: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what action are they taking to support council tenants who want to form housing cooperatives. 

Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon: Council tenants have the Right to Manage, which enables them to set up a Tenant Management Organisation (a management co-operative) to manage the homes in their area, with a management allowance from the Council. The Tenant Empowerment Programme, £2 million in 2014/15 and £1 million in 2015/16, supports social housing tenants to engage in, manage and/or take control of their housing services. This includes training, support and funding to enable tenant groups to take up their Right to Manage. There are currently over 200 Tenant Management Organisations across England, managing around 80,000 homes. [Edit]

Council Tenants Vote for Autonomy

The tenants of a south London council housing estate have voted in favour of creating a tenant managed organisation (TMO) for their area. On a 47.5% turnout, 85.7% of the D'Eynesford Estate's residents voted in favour of the TMO, which will go live in October 2014. The move will allow the tenants to manage their own repairs, budgets and services, with the support of Southwark Council. The TMO will be chaired by an elected resident who will act as spokesperson and support others in reporting repairs and other issues. A tenant board will deal with the governance and administration of the TMO. Read more on 24dash.

Tenant-Led Stock Transfer Stalls after Council Probe

The first tenant management organisation to apply for stock transfer in London under new powers will fight a ‘hostile’ supervision order that could delay the deal. Patmos Area Community Conservation Association applied to Lambeth Council for a stock transfer under new regulations forcing councils to co-operate with tenant groups wishing to take ownership of their estates. But it has emerged PACCA has been under supervision from the town hall since December, after the borough commissioned Pricewaterhouse Coopers to investigate the TMO’s finances due to concerns about its performance. The group had been planning to apply for transfer for months. Aside from exceptional circumstances, Lambeth has no power to refuse the transfer but a council spokesperson confirmed it will not go ahead while the supervision order is in place. Read more on Inside Housing.

Giving Social Tenants More Power

Communities Minister Don Foster has announced he is taking action to increase the number of tenant organisations across England. This will give social tenants more powers to hold their landlord to account and a greater say in how to run their community. To boost numbers of tenant organisations the government is providing £400,000 for at least 1,200 tenants to attend training courses in how to set up tenant organisations, to influence landlords and to lead their communities. There are currently around 200 tenant management organisations with powers to manage buildings and services, and several hundred tenant panels with more informal advisory powers in England. However, with around 6 million tenants in social housing ministers are determined to increase participation in how they manage services.  Read more on the Govuk website.

Southwark Agrees To First Self-Financing TMO

Last May Southwark Council had agreed in principle to the idea of Leathermarket Joint Managing Board becoming self-financing. Councillors have now gone a step further and given the green light for the TMO to becoming self-financing from 1 April. This means it will keep rental income from the 1,451 homes it manages on behalf of the council. Currently, TMOs do not keep rental receipts but receive an annual allowance from councils.  Read more on the Southwark Council website.

Regulator Found Guilty Of Maladministration

A watchdog has told the social housing regulator to apologise for its predecessor’s handling of a complaint from a tenant management organisation.  The parliamentary and health service ombudsman found maladministration in the way the Tenant Services Authority communicated with a TMO which was unhappy about its handling of a complaint.  As a result, the new regulator, the HCA has pledged to remind front line staff about appropriate directing of individual and group complaints to other organisations. The ombudsman told Pat Ritchie, chief executive of the HCA, to write to John Challinor, company secretary of Bacup & Stacksteads TMO, within four weeks to apologise for ‘injustice caused’.  The TMO, which managed 960 homes in Rossendale, Lancashire, complained that the TSA failed to properly investigate its claim that Trans-Pennine Housing, now part of Together Housing Group, had engaged in ‘corporate bullying’ of the TMO. This related to a decision in February 2010 to stop funding for the TMO.  Read more on Inside Housing.

Council Tenants Set To Take Full Control of Housing Services

An inner-London tenant management organisation is set to become the first in the country to introduce total resident management, collect and retain its rents and pay the council for services.  Leathermarket Joint Management Board (JMB), Southwark's largest tenant management organisation, already looks after 1,500 homes and undertakes the full range of management services including the delivery of major works.  Under the proposals, Leathermarket JMB would collect and keep the rent and service charges from their stock and would have the power to simply pay the council for additional, central costs such as the repayment of outstanding debt on the stock they manage.  Read more on 24dash.

Council Calls for Local Authorities Role in New Regulator

Complaints from councils concerned about poorly performing landlords should spring the new social housing regulator into action, a major London authority has urged. Lewisham Council has indicated its disappointment that local authorities were not specifically mentioned in a Tenant Services Authority consultation document about the future of regulation. ‘Lewisham would like to see a role for local authorities outlined in the standards,’ its consultation response states. ‘In a borough as complex as Lewisham (with an ALMO, community gateway organisation, several stock transfers, a housing PFI and three TMO’s) often the first indication of an issue with a housing provider is brought to the council either as a misdirected complaint or a members enquiry.’ Read more on Inside Housing.

Council May Lose Out on 8,000 Home Development

The developer behind the 8,000-home Earls Court regeneration scheme in London has said government plans to force councils to help tenants take ownership of their estates could force Hammersmith & Fulham Council out of the project. The CLG will consult in spring on these plans, which will bring into force the relevant sections of the 1985 Housing Act. Hammersmith & Fulham Council, with developer Capital and Counties, wants to redevelop Earls Court and the West Kensington and Gibbs Green estates nearby. But tenants’ and residents’ associations want to take ownership of the 750 homes instead. Capital and Counties stated: ‘It is possible that Hammersmith & Fulham Council or Transport for London may choose not to participate in the future of the masterplan, for example should Section 34a of the Housing Act result in LBHF being unable to secure vacant possession of its land interests.’ A spokesperson said the council does not believe the tenant’s groups are representative of all the residents on the estates. Read more on Inside Housing.

Social Rented Housing – Parliamentary Written Answer

Oliver Colvile: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what his policy is on the management of estates by social tenants.
Andrew Stunell: The Government wants to see more social tenants able to take control over the management of their homes. Local authority tenants wishing to take over the management of their homes and estates from their landlord have a statutory right to do so under the Housing Act 1985. The Housing (Right to Manage) (England) Regulations 2008 set out the procedures to be followed. Tenants of housing associations can enter into a voluntary agreement with their landlord if they wish to manage their housing. Grant Shapps recently announced plans to make it easier for local authority tenants to exercise their right to manage, as well as an £8 million programme to empower social tenants.

Councils Want to Merge Services to Save Millions

Three London councils are considering merging ‘every major service’ to save between £50 million and £100 million a year. Hammersmith and Fulham, Westminster and Kensington and Chelsea councils, are setting up working groups to look at merging children’s and environmental services, as well as adult social care and corporate services. The local authorities hope that the housing functions of the councils, which between them own 50,000 homes, will eventually also be included. The housing stock of Hammersmith and Fulham, and Westminster is managed by ALLMOs, while Kensington and Chelsea’s homes are managed by a tenant management organisation. Read more on Inside Housing.