‘Non-Committal Committal’ Over Release Of Social Housing Green Paper

The social housing Green Paper will be out “in the next few months” the Commons has been told. Shadow housing secretary John Healey secured the non-committal committal from MHCLG minister Heather Wheeler who said some 7,000 people had shared their views across a wide range of concerns during the consultation period. Tpas is one body to air concerns over the Green Paper folding on un-recorded findings from the Post Grenfell tenant roadshows hosted by former housing minister Alok Sharma. Read more on 24housing.

http://www.24housing.co.uk/news/non-committal-committal-over-release-of-social-housing-green-paper/

TPAS: Pay to Stay Is 'Aspiration Tax'

The government’s Pay to Stay policy is an “unfair tax on aspiration”, TPAS has said. The Tenant Participation Advisory Service (TPAS), along with campaign group Social Housing Under Threat (SHOUT), has published case studies which it believes shows the policy has negative impacts.  The paper says the government’s plans to increase rents up to market rent for social tenants with incomes of £30,000 or more (£40,000 in London) will hit people who are not well off and cause hardship. TPAS and SHOUT also argue the policy will increase welfare dependency and be difficult to administer. The policy is compulsory for councils but voluntary for associations. Download a copy of the document from the TPAS website.

Tenants To Get A Say On RTB Deal

Tenants will be able to air their reservations to David Orr, chief executive of the National Housing Federation at a TPAS hosted roundtable event.  TPAS have made the point repeatedly over the last few weeks that the voice of tenants has not been heard enough in all the discussions on the Right to Buy voluntary deal. They have also become increasingly concerned that tenants are not being consulted enough in helping organisations to manage the impact of the 1% rent cut on the services they value most from their landlord. Decisions have, and are, being taken that may fundamentally change housing associations and the nature of services they provide. Yet the people that receive those services, that pay the rent, that may want to exercise the right to buy have not been consulted on their views. Read more on the TPAS website.

Right To Buy For Housing Association Tenants – Where Are We Now?

It’s less than a week since the National Housing Federation asked its members to vote on whether to voluntarily give their tenants the Right to Buy. Tenants, housing associations, councils and many commentators have been sharing their views. Here is a flavour of comments made by tenants on TPAS Facebook and Twitter: “The taxpayer is paying for this twice over, through the original grant to build and the disposal of state assets to provide a discount.”

“This means less properties being available. The end result being Housing Associations receiving less income and the housing waiting list getting longer.”

“The right to buy a home should be a fundamental right, but not the home you rent. That already belongs to someone else”

Read more on the TPAS website.

TPAS Warns Against Right to Buy and Social Rent Cut

The Tenant Participation Advisory Service (TPAS) has said many of its tenant members are opposed to extending Right to Buy to housing associations and the proposed 1% cut in social rents. In its submission to the CLG Committee’s inquiry into the future of housing associations, TPAS included views from around 140 tenants who ‘engage with their landlords’ and around 80 association employees. The submission said: “They believe that the rent reductions, welfare reforms and Right to Buy will undermine social housing provision. Many feel this is an explicit intention, and would like clarification of the government’s vision for social housing.” Read the full submission on the TPAS website.

Government Commits £250,000 to Boost Tenant Engagement

The government has announced £250,000 to help get social housing tenants involved in the management of their homes. Stephen Williams, communities minister, announced the investment which will see tenants offered training opportunities to get involved in the management of neighbourhoods. Mr Williams announced a further £250,000 to the Tenant Participation Advisory Service and Trafford Hall, extending the successful training provided under the tenant empowerment programme - providing more than 1,500 new training opportunities for social housing tenants, looking to get involved in the running of their neighbourhoods into 2015 to 2016. Read more on the GovUK website.

TPAS Accounts Reveal Pre-Tax Loss of £108k

The Tenant Participation Advisory Service made a pre-tax loss of almost £108,000 in 2013 but expects to be back in the black in 2014. The organisation’s accounts for the year ending 31 March 2013 showed its pre-tax profit of £40,356 in 2012 became a loss of £107,732 a year later. Michelle Reid, the outgoing chief executive of TPAS, said it had budgeted for a £64,000 loss in 2012/13, which it would cover through its reserves because of the costs of a restructure, including redundancies, and moving to a smaller office. The organisation was also hit by a reduction in its consultancy income of about £40,000, she said. Read more on Inside Housing.

TPAS Voices Consumer Concerns

A tenant advisory body has said it remains ‘deeply concerned’ about the HCA’s approach to consumer regulation, claiming it is not doing enough. The HCA last month published a review of consumer regulation, including examples of real incidents that have failed to meet its statutory ‘serious detriment’ threshold for intervention on tenant complaints. But a Tenant Participation Advisory Service spokesperson said the HCA can do more to promote the status of consumer standards, while ‘remaining in its current remit’. Read more on the Inside Housing website.

TPAS Appointed To "Hand Power Back To Tenants"

TPAS has been appointed to deliver the national ‘Tenant Empowerment Programme’ designed to give social tenants support to engage confidently with their landlords.  Housing Minister, Mark Prisk, launched the £1.2m Tenant Training and Support Programme to give residents the advice and training they may need to hold their landlords to account, whether on their own, by setting up a tenant panel, or by taking over the management and maintenance of their homes and neighbourhoods themselves.  The Programme will be led by TPAS in partnership with the National Federation of Tenant Management Organisations, Tenants and Residents Organisations of England, and the Confederation of Cooperative Housing. Read more on the TPAS website.

Landlords Urged To Pay £2m to Fund New Forum

dTenants are set to push councils and housing associations to pay them up to £2 million to enable them to have a stronger voice on the national stage. The four main national tenant organisations - the Tenants’ and Residents’ Organisations of England, the Tenant Participation Advisory Service, the Confederation of Co-operative Housing and the National Federation of Tenant Management Organisations - are all united behind the plan. They are calling for landlords to pay 1p per tenant per week - or 50p per tenant per year - to fund a new national tenant forum, equating to £2 million a year. The forum has been set up after more than a year’s work between the NTOs and other tenants after the coalition government axed the £1 million National Tenant Voice in July 2010. The new forum does not have a budget, however, which will limit its scope. Instead its members - who are all tenants - will be contacted by one of the four main bodies by phone or electronically to give their views about government policies and proposals. Read more on Inside Housing.

New Quality Scheme for Tenant Scrutiny

A new framework of standards for tenant scrutiny is being launched to help landlords and tenants improve the quality of housing services. The Tenant Participation Advisory Service (TPAS), HouseMark and the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) have worked together to create the Quality Assured Scrutiny (QAS), a new accreditation scheme which will recognise the quality of tenant scrutiny and the improvements it will deliver in social housing. This comes as the focus of consumer protection and decision-making moves away from the regulator towards tenants themselves and their own locally defined needs and priorities. Housing providers are being invited to pre-register for the new accreditation scheme which will launch formally in the New Year. Read more on the CIH website.

Resident Involvement Benchmarking Workshops

In partnership with TPAS and TAROE
Date: 6 December (London), 8 December (Manchester)
Time: 10am (registration from 9.30am) to 4.00pm

With the Government’s emphasis on localism and resident scrutiny, the need for landlords to work closely with their residents has never been greater. HouseMark, in partnership with TPAS and TAROE is therefore pleased to announce it will be holding two more resident involvement benchmarking workshops. The workshop sessions will include:
• a presentation of the 10/11 Resident Involvement Benchmarking results which will cover the key areas of cost & resources, participation, communication and consultation, decision making and training
• value for money in resident involvement
• presentations from housing organisations who have demonstrated good practice and innovation in resident involvement.
Find full details on the HouseMark website.

Tenants to Produce Framework for Local Tenant Panels

A programme agreed between the National Tenant Organisations (NTOs) and Government will see tenants leading the development of a framework for local tenant panels working in partnership with landlords. The NTOs (CCH, TPAS, TAROE and NFTMO) have been funded through the DCLG’s Tenant Empowerment Grant programme to provide an outline framework:
*establishing a programme of front runners to test out approaches;
*considering relationships with councillors, MPs, the regulator and ombudsman; and
*developing a user friendly document aimed at tenants setting out options derived from the above activity that tenants and landlords will be able to use in their development of tenant panels.
Along side this grant-funded project, the NTOs will also develop an “accreditation” system for Local Tenant Panels that will aim:
*to develop a tenant-led framework of principles and standards behind tenant panels;
*to ensure clarity for landlords regarding what is expected of them; and
*to generally drive up standards of tenant involvement and empowerment,
providing a basis for tenants and landlords to work together and learn from each other locally and nationally.
Find more information on the Confederation of Co-operative Housing website.

Local Offers To Go Unchecked

Tenant groups have warned that social landlords are getting away with paying lip service to residents’ demands through new local offers. The Tenant Services Authority said it would not monitor the ‘local offers’ that housing associations were expected to draw up with tenants by 1 April this year. It means no-one will check if the deadline has been met or whether tenants are happy with the offer. A spokesperson said the regulator saw local offers as a matter for landlords and tenants. Michelle Reid, chief executive of the Tenant Participation Advisory Service, warned that a landlord was unlikely to face censure if it failed to agree offers with tenants, or if its offers were inadequate. And she said tenants had been ‘given the impression’ that the TSA would at least make sure landlords had local offers in place. She said: ‘This is what we are going to experience from now on: backstop regulation.’ Read more on Inside Housing.

Two-Year Tenancies Slammed By Tenants Body

Members of the Tenant Participation Advisory Service (TPAS) have rejected the Coalition Government’s security of tenure proposals. Some 216 TPAS resident group members responded to the e-based consultation relating to security of tenure and the ‘Local Decisions: A Fairer future for social housing’ Green Paper. TPAS will now submit the results to the Coalition Government along with a report after being invited to respond to the consultation. The survey found that 77 per cent of tenant members who took part in the survey were against ending lifetime tenancies for new tenants, and 79.5 per cent said landlords should not be able to limit the length of a new tenancy to a fixed period as low as two years. When asked if new tenants should have to move out of their rented home if their income increased above a defined level, 76.6 per cent said no. Read the full TPAS response on their website.

Government Gives NTV Grant

Four national tenant organisations have been given £50,000 from the government to look into ways of continuing to operate a national tenant council. Work to explore options will be called the New Dawn project and include members of the 50-strong National Tenant Voice Council along with boards and membership from the four tenant organisations. A national tenant council was established as part of the £1 million National Tenants Voice, which was set up by the previous government in January but abolished soon after the new government formed in May. The Tenants and Residents Organisations of England, National Federation of Tenant Management Organisations, Confederation of Co-operative Housing and the Tenant Participation Advisory Service asked housing minister Grant Shapps for funding to see how it could continue in some form. The work will also look into possible funding sources. Read more on Inside Housing.

NTV in Bid to Carry on Independently

The National Tenant Voice has put in a bid for £50,000 worth of funding to explore whether it can run without government help. The body, set up to give tenants the chance to influence national housing policy, was told by housing minister Grant Shapps last month it was to be scrapped as part of the government’s ‘bonfire of quangos’. Mr Shapps told NTV heads, however, that he would be willing to consider an application for funds to look into ways in which the body could run independently. Michael Gelling, chair of the NTV, explained that the four national tenants groups - the Tenant Participation Advisory Service, Tenants’ and Residents’ Organisations of England, Confederation of Co-operative Housing and National Federation of Tenant Management Organisations - still intended to set up a separate ‘joint national tenant scrutiny committee’. Read more on Inside Housing.

TSA Chief 'disappointed' as National Tenant Voice Axed

The Chief Executive of the TSA has expressed his disappointment at the decision to axe the body set up to give social housing tenants a bigger say on the national stage. TSA chief Peter Marsh said he hoped that the NTV framework will be able to continue when Government funding runs out at the end of August. "Tenants do need to have a national voice and I hope the likes of TPAS and TAROE are able to do something to ensure the framework continues even in the absence of government funding”, he said. Housing minister Grant Shapps met with NTV chief executive and chair last week to inform them of the decision. Read the full story on 24dash.

TPAS Calls for Debate on Future of Social Housing Tenant Organisations

TPAS is calling on the Government to debate the future of social housing tenant organisations at its national conference in Birmingham. The request follows announcements by the CLG to stop funding the National Tenant Voice (NTV) and the TSA. TPAS Chair, Peter Coleing, said: “It is very disappointing to hear that Government funding and support will no longer be given to the NTV, especially after tenants have committed so much time and hard work to establish it. “Following on so quickly from the news that the TSA is to be abolished, we now have two organisations effectively scrapped before they were even given chance to show what they could deliver for people living in social housing.” He continued, “TPAS is committed to representing all our 1,250 tenant members and we will be putting our case strongly to the Government at a time when we should be empowering tenants more than ever by putting their views and needs at the top of the housing agenda.” Read the full story at 24dash.