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A new New Local Government Network paper outlines ways in which the 2008 Housing and Regeneration Act can help to better empower housing tenants.
The paper, written by Ian Keys, External Affairs Director for Pinnacle and one of those heavily involved in the lobbying over the Act, looks at the role of the new Tenant Services Authority (TSA) and offers recommendations on how it can bring together landlords, housing managers and tenants, ensuring that both receive fair treatment and value for money.
The report cautions the TSA to focus on local factors rather than central targets, arguing: "It is essential that regulation does not pervert service focus. Such difficulties may arise if the TSA concentrates too closely on centrally imposed targets which do not resonate with local conditions. Proper attention must naturally be paid to central targets but regulators, in particular, should consult and engage with staff, service users and other local stakeholders to ensure that there is proper understanding of their requirements and preferences, as well as of local circumstances."
The paper also sets out a number of suggested inclusions into the forthcoming TSA code of practice and key inputs and outputs, including:
* engagement with tenants, staff and other interested stakeholders;
* tenant access to all partners involved in the provision of their homes and the services that support them;
* transparency of performance;
* access for tenants to trigger landlord or Regulator action where there is a prime facie cause to believe that there are probity or performance issues;
* landlords and their registered providers playing a full part in the delivery of local community well-being;
* self-regulation by landlords and the encouragement for them to grow the capacity to undertake it;
* the balancing of resource investment by landlords and their housing managers with the resulting community and personal outcomes.
Author of the paper, Ian Keys said: "The TSA has the opportunity of not only delivering tenant-centred regulation but of also becoming a leader in a new breed of outcome-focused and customer-centric regulators: potentially a model for others to follow."
To read the entire report, visit the NLGN website here.
