Older People Told To Run Own Services

Groups of vulnerable older people should take over the running of their sheltered housing schemes if they don’t want their resident wardens axed, according to the decentralisation minister. Greg Clark indicated that residents of sheltered housing schemes could use new powers set out in the Localism Bill to run warden services where they might have been removed. A question submitted to parliament by Liberal Democrat MP Adrian Sanders asked whether communities secretary Eric Pickles had plans to encourage greater provision of sheltered housing wardens as part of the government’s big society initiative. In its response, Mr Clark said people could use the community right to challenge to deliver warden services. The right gives community or voluntary groups a chance to bid to run local services, and to tender for the service on the local authority’s behalf. Read more on Inside Housing.