Housing Corporation funds 'Dispute Resolution Toolkit'

The ‘Dispute Resolution Toolkit’ has been launched at the TPAS Annual Conference.

The Toolkit was funded by the Housing Corporation, through the Innovation into Good Practice programme, and supported by the Housing Ombudsman.

The toolkit was developed using three ‘live’ case studies, involving three Housing Associations from different areas of the country, who opened their doors to Compas@TPAS and allowed them access to ongoing disputes. 

More than 50 people were interviewed that had been involved in the various disputes, including Chief Executives, Police, Housing Officers and Residents. 

A Steering Group including the Housing Corporation, Housing Ombudsman, Age Concern and landlord and resident representatives commented on the toolkit.

This includes thirteen ‘tools’ to help, assist and guide not only ongoing disputes, but also to help identify potential disputes before they start.

The launch saw a number of actors from train4change, who did a live re-enactment of some of the issues raised in the toolkit,

Steve Douglas, Chief Executive of the Housing Corporation, said: "The Housing Corporation recognises the value of effective complaints handling by Registered Social Landlords. It is for this reason they require Registered Social Landlords to be members of the Independent Housing Ombudsman Scheme.

"However, the Ombudsman can only deal with complaints that come from individual residents.  There is no formal mechanism for groups of residents, such as Tenants' and Residents' Associations, to access the Ombudsman's service.  “This is why we are pleased that TPAS has developed this dispute resolution toolkit, which offers a range of techniques for preventing and tackling disputes between landlords and groups of their residents”.

Rafael Runco, the Deputy Housing Ombudsman fully supports the toolkit.

He said: This toolkit is for anyone who may have to deal with conflict in social housing, either as a party to a dispute or as someone supporting the search for a solution.  It has been designed to help people understand why, sometimes, there is conflict between providers and consumers of housing services – but it does not stop there.  The toolkit, significantly, gives examples of disputes and how they can be resolved, and provides easy-to-follow tips on how best to manage the inevitable tensions in the sometimes fragile relationship between landlords and residents.  Above all, the toolkit is a practical guide arranged with the purpose of emphasising dispute resolution at every step. I welcome the toolkit’s realistic and workable advice when things go wrong.”

Allen Daniels, TPAS Project Leader, said: “The move away from current roles of regulation and inspection will place more emphasis on relationships between landlords and tenants. Disputes cost time, money and energy better spent on improving services.”

“Producing the toolkit, useful as it is, is only part of our role. TPAS will continue to use it to work with landlords and tenants directly and through a number of training sessions in the autumn”.

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