Phil MorganPhil Morgan is the former TSA Executive Director for Tenant Services who now works as an independent consultant, speaker and commentator on social housing issues.
April 15th, 2013 by Phil Morgan
I recently listened to Andy Burnham, Labour's Health Spokesperson, outline his thinking on having a joint approach to health and social care. The event, hosted by the Smith Institute, was one of a number which saw Burnham setting out questions about integration. His starting point was that the separ...
April 8th, 2013 by Phil Morgan
I have watched with some amusement the recent furore caused when Iain Duncan Smith said he could live on £53/week. I have resisted the temptation to add my name to the petition calling for him to do precisely that as it would just be a stunt. One slight area of fuzziness on my own CV was between l...
March 11th, 2013 by Phil Morgan
Two years ago I blogged about the failure of successive governments to tackle unemployment in social housing as “Tragedy repeated as farce”. Following the Hills report there was an opportunity to tackle the much higher levels of unemployment of worklessness for social housing tenants. The...
February 26th, 2013 by Phil Morgan
The results of the recent pilots of direct payment of benefits to tenants makes sobering reading. These benefits, currently paid to social landlords, have been paid to tenants in six different landlords. And these pilots show that something is truly rotten in the state of Direct Payment. Unsurprisingly arrears r...
February 13th, 2013 by Phil Morgan
The announcement that Shelter are to close 10 offices offering face-to-face advice is an indictment of the cuts to the legal aid budget. Given the 50% cuts that they have faced Shelter have done a sterling job in minimising the impact on their services and their staff. There are three debateabl...
January 25th, 2013 by Phil Morgan
Octavia Housing have just announced a new apprentices scheme for four young people. They rightly talk up the benefits of apprenticeships and the benefits for the wider community. Octavia also talk up the costs generated for each pound invested – a return of £4.12. Good stuff. But the reall...
January 9th, 2013 by Phil Morgan
Four years ago, at the giddy height of preparation for a National Tenant Voice, I argued for what I described as a Tenant Army. I stated that by training some 10,000 tenants each year that the new regulatory regime would well placed to benefit from trained tenants playing an active role. I also argued th...
December 10th, 2012 by Phil Morgan
The recent batch of regulatory judgements from the Regulatory Committee including falsifying documents for £50million of grant, and failure to act on whistleblowing for £47 million are sobering. These are not trivial sums of money or casual acts of negligence. Add to this the still unresolved is...
November 9th, 2012 by Phil Morgan
"Through my present role I have a wealth of experience dealing with the police, Crown Prosecution Service, probation and all associated agencies. The Police are public servants and I want the public to have confidence that Greater Manchester Police is the best Police force in the country. As Police &a...
November 5th, 2012 by Phil Morgan
And yes there is a housing crisis. It works on many levels – an inflated housing market, a shortage of lending, a growing shortage of housing and the emerging threat of welfare reform. The National Audit Office has just published its report into Welfare Reform. It reveals two main areas of concer...
