TAROE Future Under Threat

England’s largest tenant body is under threat of closing within months due to a shortage of funds. The Tenants’ and Residents’ Organisation of England (TAROE) is concerned that it may have to close by the end of March as a lack of funds means it will no longer be able to run its office and pay its one member of staff. Michael Gelling, chair of TAROE, said he has “exhausted” every possibility of funding he can think of to keep TAROE operating.  He said: “I don’t think there’s anywhere else to go unless there’s a willingness by the sector to keep us going.” Mr Gelling said if every social landlord paid TAROE £100 for the year, the organisation would not have a problem surviving. Read more on the TAROE website.

Tenant Anger over Plan to Share Personal Details

Plans to share a host of data on benefit claimants, including health records and IT literacy, with landlords and charities have been condemned by a national tenant organisation. Michael Gelling, chair of TAROE, said the government’s proposals for Universal credit claimants went ‘too far’ and were ‘very, very dangerous’. The DWP is consulting until 12 January on measures to allow sharing of information about claimants between the department, councils, housing associations, Citizens Advice bureaux, credit unions and charities. This is to enable organisations to provide support to claimants to stop them falling into arrears or struggling with debt. Data to be shared includes details of debts, benefits, health conditions, qualifications, and level of digital skills. Read more on Inside Housing.

TAROE to Register As Charity to Attract Cash

The Tenants’ and Residents’ Organisations of England has applied to become a charity in a bid to plug funding cuts and secure its future.  The organisation, which represents tenants’ groups and individual tenants, has applied to register a new company - TAROE Trust Ltd - with the Charity Commission. The launch of the charity is expected to take place later this month, pending the approval of the commission.  Michael Gelling, chair of TAROE, said TAROE needs to raise £150,000 or it may struggle to survive.  Read more on the TAROE website.

TAROE Reports Surge in Tenant Complaints

A tenant body has reported an upsurge in complaints from residents who feel they have less of a voice as a result of changes to their social land­lords’ group structures.  The Tenants’ and Residents’ Organ­isations of England said it is currently receiving around 10 or 12 complaints a month from tenants, compared with around one or two a month a few months ago. Michael Gelling, chair of TAROE, said the complaints are almost all about changes to group structures.  Mr Gelling said that in some cases social landlords had derecog­nised long-running panels on which tenants sit as part of changes to slim down organisations and achieve greater value for money.  Read more on Inside Housing.

Whitehall Accused of ‘Crazy’ Hypocrisy

The government has been accused of hypocrisy after attacking a council for spending £600 on a welfare cuts awareness campaign, while spending nearly £1 million itself promoting the right to buy.  Conservative MP John Glen complained to the district auditor about Labour-led Lambeth Council spending £600 on leaflets informing residents about welfare reform. Brandon Lewis, local government minister, later described the £600 spend as ‘money wasted on this scare campaign’. Michael Gelling, chair of the Tenants’ and Residents’ Organisations of England, described the government’s position as ‘crazy’. He said many tenants are unaware of all the changes coming in. He said: ‘Councils have an obligation to inform their residents.’  Read more on Inside Housing.

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.

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.

TSA Fails To Engage Tenants

Just one tenant responded to a consultation on the future of housing inspection, prompting fears not enough was done to involve people. The Tenant Services Authority’s 12-week consultation on its plans for housing inspection was conducted mainly online and closed on 10 June. The consultation document, published in March, said: ‘We are seeking views from tenants, providers, lenders and other stakeholders with an interest in social housing.’ But a summary of consultation responses published last week revealed just one of England’s 8 million social housing tenants responded. Michael Gelling, chair of the Tenants’ and Residents’ Organisations of England, said thousands of tenants should have participated. ‘Maybe the TSA does not have, or does not want to spend money on consultation exercises, or to pay someone like us to inform tenants,’ he added. Mr Gelling said landlords had a role to play in passing information on to their tenants. Read more on Inside Housing.

Challenge to Housing Sector to Improve Annual Reports to Tenants

As landlords gear up to producing their second year annual reports to tenants, the four National Tenant Organisations publish their review report of the first year annual reports – “A good start, but could do better” - challenging the housing sector to improve annual reports next time round. The review identifies many positives in annual reports – particularly that the tenant-led reports were amongst the best. However, the review sets out that too many reports were written for the TSA and not for tenants; there was too much PR and corporate back slapping; too many did not include enough honest assessment of services and very few compared services with other landlords; too many did not include information on value for money, diversity and governance; and very few demonstrated that landlords had understood “local offers”. Above all, the review makes it clear that too few reports set out to excite their tenant readership. Download a copy of the TAROE report from its website.

Landlords Face Increasing Legal Challenges, Warns Tenants' Champion

The introduction of flexible tenancies and housing benefit changes will increasingly lead to legal challenges from tenants, according to Cora Carter. Ms Carter, chair of Tenants and Residents Organisations of England, told the Chartered Institute of Housing south east conference in Brighton that tenants will seek to challenge social landlords’ policies in the court. She said the removal of security of tenure for new tenants, and plans to cut benefit for people under-occupying their homes could lead to challenges. She said: ‘The Department for Work and Pensions and locals authorities will face increasing challenges from tenants in the courts. Will the court system be able to stand up to this? Will your budgets allow you to cope with it?’ Read more on Inside Housing.

“Local Decisions” Consultation Paper

Defend Council Housing have drawn together a number of responses to the Government’s consultation paper, “Local decisions: a fairer future for social housing”, including those from TAROE, Shelter, CIH and, of course, their own. Find them on the DCH website by clicking on the logo below.

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.

NTV Closure is 'Major Blow' for Tenants

The government must show it is still committed to social tenants after it scrapped their representative body, tenant groups have said. In a joint statement the four organisations representing tenants in England said they were worried about the signal the decision would send to tenants. Cora Carter, chair of Tenants and Residents Organisations of England, said: ‘This announcement is a major blow, not just for those involved with the NTV, but for the whole tenant movement in the country.’ Nic Bliss, chair of the Confederation of Co-operative Housing, said: ‘The NTV, itself governed by a voluntary board, had the potential to mobilise thousands of tenant volunteers to improve their communities and so it offered excellent value for money.’ Read more on Inside Housing.

National Tenant Scrutiny Committee to Hold TSA to Account

Following publication of the TSA’s regulatory standards, the four national tenant organisations are to set up a joint independent national tenant scrutiny committee. The committee will hold the TSA and other Government bodies to account for their part in ensuring the delivery of better services in the social housing sector, comprehensive empowerment opportunities and improved quality of life for tenants. The Committee aims to publicly and independently scrutinise the Government and its regulatory systems. It will seek to work in partnership with the National Tenant Voice and will consider using a range of approaches, such as gathering information from tenants and from others of good and bad performance; examining evidence of how the TSA is making a difference to the lives of tenants; setting up an Empowerment Watch website; and inviting representatives from public and other bodies to independent and publicly recorded tenant scrutiny hearings. Read the full story on the TAROE website by clicking on the logo below.

Good Practice On TAROE Website

As part of HouseMark's partnership with TAROE a new Good Practice section has been launched on the TAROE website. The improvement is part of moves by both organisations to raise tenants’ awareness of established good practice within the regulated housing sector. This will form a crucial element of the TSA’s new regulatory regime which encourages tenants to take an active role in shaping their landlord’s services as part of the emphasis of “co-regulation”. The new section can be accessed by clicking on the TAROE logo below.