[KF] Two organisations, one raising the standards for tenants' homes, the other responsible for resolving housing disputes, have demonstrated their commitment to improving services to tenants by signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for exchanging information.
The Tenant Services Authority (TSA) and the Housing Ombudsman Service (HOS) agreed an interim protocol, which will enable information sharing between the two organisations and improve the complaints procedures for tenants.
The MoU will further strengthen joint working, setting out how the two organisations will work closely together.
Joint working will include the sharing of quarterly reports and statistics between the TSA and HOS, which will indicate themes of enquiries and complaints so that trends can be analysed.
TSA Chief Executive Peter Marsh said:
"The Memorandum is a tangible demonstration of our shared goals and commitment to work together.
"It allows the TSA to draw upon the experiences of the Housing Ombudsman and, through the Ombudsman, those of tenants who have made complaints about landlords in gaining our better understanding of the performance of landlords."
Housing Ombudsman Mike Biles said:
"I am pleased that we have been able to draw up a Memorandum that will enable staff in both organisations to understand which complaints can properly be considered by which of the two bodies.
"This means that residents' complaints will be swiftly and efficiently allocated for appropriate treatment according to our respective customer care standards."
A copy of the MoU can be found at www.tenantservicesauthority.org
Regulators Agree to Exchange Information
[KF] Council tenants are set to benefit from increased protection under proposals announced to extend the powers of the Tenant Services Authority (TSA).
Housing Minister John Healey announced that for the first time all social housing would be covered by a single regulator, putting housing association tenants and council tenants on an equal footing when it comes to housing standards and services.
The proposals would extend the remit of the new TSA to regulate both housing associations and council landlords from April 2010 and give the TSA the powers it needs to set common standards across all social housing providers.
TSA Chief Executive Peter Marsh said:
"We welcome the Government's proposals which bring us a step closer to ensuring that over 8.4 million tenants of social housing benefit from similar levels of protection and choice.
"Tenants will also enjoy the same rights and opportunities to be involved in the decisions that affect them and their neighbourhoods.
"We recognise there are some excellent local authority landlords up and down the country, but where this is not the case and tenants are not getting the deal they deserve, we will regulate in a proportionate way to raise the standard of service for tenants.
"Since we launched our consultation on landlord standards, nearly 6,000 local authority tenants have shared with us their views on the services that matter most to them. We will continue to work very closely with tenants, local authorities and the Local Government Association on how the new regulatory framework will work in practice in the months ahead."
The Consultation closes on October 30th 2009.
TSA's Regulation Remit Extended
