Section: Tenants' Rights

New Rights for Tenants Outlined

New proposals could see social housing tenants who consistently get a poor service - such as long waits for repairs, and failure to deal with concerns about poor security - being able to report their landlord to a new, independent social housing watchdog and trigger action to put the problems they are facing right.

In her speech at the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) Conference and Exhibition 2007, in Harrogate, Communities Secretary Ruth Kelly supported measures that will be put forward as part of the most wide-ranging review of social housing regulation in over 30 years.

A new watchdog would have the authority to impose a wide range of penalties and sanctions on failing social landlords, including the power to trigger a change of management, or cap rent rises and help ensure tenants receive at least a minimum standard of service.

Tenants and local councils will be able to trigger these penalties by bringing concerns to the watchdog's attention.

At the same time, good social landlords will be freed from red-tape, allowing them to concentrate on getting housing management services right and building more homes. The change would be part of a new deal with the profession, giving new freedoms to good landlords to help them improve services still further.

New proposals will set out how Communities England, the new housing and regeneration agency, will place a clearer, strengthened focus on supporting local areas to do more to deliver both the social and private homes the country needs.

The package of proposals to give tenants a greater voice follows an independent six-month review of regulation, conducted by Professor Martin Cave of Warwick University.

The Government will also publish new proposals to make it easier for tenants to take over the day-to-day management of council estates. A simpler Right to Manage process will strip away a number of layers of bureaucracy, making it easier for local authority tenants to take control of day-to-day management of housing repairs, maintenance and refurbishments.

At present, it can take more than six years for tenants to set up a tenant management organisation; under new proposals this could be cut to around two years. While not a solution for every area, research shows satisfaction and service levels are higher when tenants have a greater role in management.

New Involvement Policy Launched

The Housing Corporation launched People First - Delivering Change Through Involvement, setting out its expectations on tenant involvement for housing associations. It includes the following:

the business imperative for involvement;
the Corporation's objectives, policy and requirements within the Regulatory Code and Guidance;
the basic building blocks of effective involvement for housing associations;
a new requirement for housing associations to have at least one resident board member; and
a menu of additional approaches to involvement, including the widening of housing association involvement activities to include communities.

The policy replaces the Involvement Policy for the Housing Association Sector, which came into effect in April 2004. The updated policy - following the Elton Report and the report of the National Housing Federation's Tenant Involvement Commission - builds on the commitment in the sector to ensuring that residents are properly involved, and the good practice already underpinning that work.

In its February response to the Cave Review of Social Housing Regulation, the Corporation called for:

A re-definition of the core purposes of a social housing provider to reflect wider community needs, interests and concerns.
All social housing tenants to have the same tenancy rights, service level expectations and access to performance information, regardless of their social landlord.
A simplified registration system, open to both housing associations and other private sector providers.
Simplified and reduced regulatory requirements, with greater use of self-certification.
New rights for residents, including increased access to information on landlord performance, resident scrutiny committees, compensation for poor performance, and a new collective right to change housing manager.
Stronger powers of intervention when things go wrong.

Section: Tenants' Rights

New Rights for Tenants Outlined

New Involvement Policy Launched

Legal Update

Reporting on May-July 2007

Quick Links

Welcome to the Legal Update

Archive Issues Reporting Periods