A new era for the Tenant Empowerment Programme (TEP) started on 6 April with the Housing Corporation becoming responsible for the day-to-day management of the programme, which allows council housing tenants to have a greater say in how their homes are managed.
Under the programme (previously known as Section 16), tenants' groups can bid for grant funding. For example, grant is available to enable council tenants to work with an agency to explore issues of concern to tenants and look at how they could become involved in the management of their homes and estates.
The programme also gives council tenants direct access to independent advice, training, and information. TEP also funds tenant training and capacity building, which is open to both local authority and housing association tenants.
The programme does not fund mainstream tenant participation activity, which is the responsibility of the landlord.
The allocation for the 2006/7 TEP is £2.64 million and priorities are:
Policy responsibility for the TEP will remain with the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister.
A new community management model, outlined in a joint report by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister and the Home Office, could see residents' associations given powers to take over the running of their estates.
The model is presented as an alternative to tenant management organisations (TMOs), which are generally not favoured by the housing association sector. The report identifies TMOs as tenure specific and argues that most communities are multi-tenure. It proposes an alternative approach, whereby registered social landlords (perhaps acting collectively) could pass the management and servicing of neighbourhoods to a residents' organisation active in that area.
The proposals could result in neighbourhoods that are managed by several social landlords having neighbourhood management functions handed to a single local residents' group.
In its submission to the National Housing Federation's Tenant Involvement Commission, the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) argued that housing associations with too many tenants on their boards could be putting their governance at risk.
The CML said it was comfortable with a model where one third of the board was made up of tenants. However, it warned against allowing the concern to represent specific interests being at the expense of ensuring good governance.
