Social landlords urged to reduce red tape and have more accountability by TSA

“Over time there will be less red tape and hopefully more accountability.” Jim Coulter, board member from the Tenant Services Authority (TSA) announced today (Wednesday 10 March) advising key staff, board members and chairs in the social housing sector on new TSA regulation. In his speech Jim informed delegates at the Board Development Agency’s annual conference of the latest updates from the TSA’s co-regulatory framework, which is due to be implemented on the 1st April 2010. He went on to explain to the Board Development Agency conference delegates in Leeds how the new process will work:
“It’s a move away from this is how we do it, to handing over to registered providers, who will say; this is how we deliver and they will report their delivery to tenants and to other stakeholders. The main focus will be the relationship between landlord and tenants.”
Jim Coulter admitted to delegates that some of the initial framework for regulation needed to be changed and that the TSA had made adjustments as a result of feedback. He said:
“We have had feedback about clarity of language on our national standards and local standards. There are now a number of adjustments being made (to the proposed standards). What we have done in response to the feedback is no longer to call these national standards which seemed to be confusing, so they are now called TSA Standards. The Local Standards will no longer be called Local Standards but Local Offers. That’s where a greater clarity will kick in. There will also be changes in the timetable, for example when landlords are required to produce an annual report, which will now be the 1st October each year.”
Jim Coulter also ran through the importance of being a good quality landlord, outlining the steps the TSA are going to take with poor performing housing organisations. He said:
“In 2010/11 there is going to be resourcing to investigate the poorest providers. We want to see poor performance driven up, rather than having a blanket approach to the sector overall.”
Yvonne Atkinson, director at the Board Development Agency added:
“Over the last year we have looked at the issue of new regulation and have felt that good governance is more important than ever during a recessionary phase.”
Jim Coulter advised delegates that they would need to make sure their governance processes were in place saying:
“We want to try to make sure that independent validation, audit and benchmarking are used to ensure that you validate what you do, so that the less intervention and interrogation there will be.”
Jim Coulter then went on to describe how some of the accountability will work in practice, saying that he wanted tenants to be able to compare between different landlords.
“We want to make a move to more open information and make sure that the open information is what you use. We want to make sure the information is seen by people so people can make comparisons between different landlords. ”
Jim added. “Our task is to make a difference on behalf of social sector tenants. Every tenant matters is a very important clue in the change to what regulation is about.”

The Board Development Agency are the leaders of governance in the social housing sector in the UK and have been on the TSA’s advisory panel, preparing for the new regulation. For more information go to www.boardagency.org.uk

Jim Coulter is a board member at the TSA. He has been Chair of Bridging Newcastle Gateshead since December 2005 and is a member of the North East Housing Board. He is a member of the Audit Commission Board and chairs its Housing and Regeneration Advisory Group.