Social landlords unprepared for TSA
Many housing organisations are unprepared for the Tenant Services Authority’s new regulatory regime, a survey has warned.
Research commissioned by the Chartered Institute of Housing found 45 per cent of housing professionals thought the new regulatory framework starting on 1 April would have minimal effect or were unsure of what the changes would mean.
The new regulator has set out plans to scrap the red tape of its predecessor, the Housing Corporation, in favour of ‘co-regulation’, whereby tenants of councils and housing associations hold landlords to account. Landlords are also expected to develop local standards with their tenants.
Richard Capie, director of policy and practice at the CIH, said: ‘The introduction of the new regulatory system in England will inevitably mean that housing organisations will need to change. The work of housing professionals will also have to evolve.’
The TSA said it would need to explain how the new framework would affect providers. Richard Moriarty, director for policy and market intelligence, said: ‘The CIH is right - there will be a new way of regulating that will place more emphasis on the role of boards and governing bodies to meet out outcome-based standards by involving their tenants.’
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Readers' comments (36)
kass | 15/02/2010 1:18 pm
The fact that many social landlords are unprepared for this is in itself blatant proof that their attitudes to deal with complaints has been all along to brush them off.
This is a great initiative. Maybe for once social landlords will have to deliver real satisfaction to their residents on the ground rather than coming up with all sort of dodgy initiatives and internal researches aiming at showing how good they are doing instead of how bad their residents are feeling. One thing is fixing a water tap in one visit. another in 20 visits. In this case, for example, the landlord will tick the tap has been fixed and problem solved -but what about the way they went about doing it? That surely has not been fixed and for the resident the whole operation counts as totally unsatisfactory experience. And that's just a water tap - let's not mention the roof...
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karen | 15/02/2010 1:45 pm
I suspect the main reason for uncertainty is that the TSA havent really got going with regulating what with all the preperation in the framework. What does worry me is that come June we could be losing the TSA for yet another version of regulation which hasnt been thought about yet. (Tories dont know what they want but they know its not the TSA... etc)
A bit of consistancy would be lovely.
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michaelbarratt council tenant | 15/02/2010 1:50 pm
"45 per cent of respondents thought the Tenant Services Authority’s regulatory framework would have minimal impact."
I think that many tenants also share the view that the TSA will have a minimal impact in dealing with tenants' complaints.
Government agencies including Government south East and tenant participation organisations (like TPAS) have done nothing in the past to respond to tenants' complaints like those detailed by me at www.indoubt.co.uk
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Kevin Dupree | 15/02/2010 3:46 pm
kass | Mon, 15 Feb 2010 13:18 GMT
The fact that many social landlords are unprepared for this is in itself blatant proof that their attitudes to deal with complaints has been all along to brush them off.
In what way is this blatant proof? The article doesn't even mention complaints handling.
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London Tenant | 15/02/2010 4:21 pm
Kevin Dupree | Mon, 15 Feb 2010 15:46 GMT
kass | Mon, 15 Feb 2010 13:18 GMT
Kevin - Kass may interpret the editorial differently from you but his point about 20 visit tap fixing is perfect for hi-lighting tick box management by RSLs. I don’t think for one minute that every repair request takes twenty visits but I do think that outcomes for RSLs are often ticked as a positive without any audit of the journey to getting there and this does need to be addressed. My own RSL landlord once asked “would you use the services again?” Yes or No tick box with no space left for elaborating on reasons for response. RSLs also have a habit of “no news is good news” style knowing that half they hear informally in the office is never officially reported i.e. “Mrs. X, age 70 up the road has spent all week listening to neighbours jumping up and down”. Their response would be “we can’t solicit” but doesn’t mean it isn’t going on. Could it be that RSLs non prep. for TSA is complacency due to their previous frameworks, Housing Corp. Housing Ombudsman whom made a few noises now and then but for the average tenant, these quangos proved useless. As far as customer care goes, tenants need to be in a position like they are in the shops - don’t deliver - I want my money back. There are some good hard working RSL staff.
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London Tenant 2 | 15/02/2010 4:55 pm
London Tenant - "Kass may interpret the editorial differently"
Thats true, also Kass may hijack a subject which is only slightly related to his gripe and use this forum to raise issues about induvidual repairs.
It is very easy to complain about one incident, it alters the situation if you take into account that the RSL has carried out 10,000+ other repairs that week. I am sure that if Kass puts something in writing, progress may be made. Also a member of L&Q has approached Kass on this forum to try and resolve the problem so time ago, has anything come of this? It seems like Kass enjoys a good moan rather than pursuing productive solutions.
I am unsure how to respond to your other comments, You have correctly identified very generic problems with housing management, any solutions?
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London Tenant | 15/02/2010 6:37 pm
London Tenant 2 | Mon, 15 Feb 2010 16:55 GMT
London Tenant - "Kass may interpret the editorial differently"
Whilst Kass’s post makes reference to a (his?) repair experience which may seem unrelated to the original editorial, I think that the two sides, TSA prep. and complaints outcome/tick box generally are relevant. It seems that for RSLs to move forward, (and therefore towards TSA standard), they have to move away from this type of tick box style. My post acknowledges that not every repair takes 20 visits and that there are some good hard working RSL staff.
Solutions:
Tick Box - how about leaving a space for tenants to elaborate and then the text being read and analysed, rather than yes/no in to data;
Mrs. X, aged 70 (hypothetical) - how about staff taking a little more notice about what they hear informally - I do think there is a large number of complaints / issues that are not formally reported. I know RSL staff aren’t psychic!
TSA - let’s hope that they demonstrate more expectation of RSLs when things go wrong compared to Housing Corp & Ombudsman.
Money back - any RSL that is charging a management fee and has to have it pointed out to them that nobody has been round to clean, garden for months is not doing their job properly or monitoring their services and taking money under false pretences. Give it back. RSL should then investigate how, when and why service failed.
You make reference to “very generic problems” re: Housing Management. Yes, but they are also very long standing problems, many of which seem to have a repeat cycle.
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London Tenant 2 | 16/02/2010 9:30 am
London Tenant
You make some very valid points but my problems with them are:
"Tick Box - how about leaving a space for tenants to elaborate and then the text being read and analysed, rather than yes/no in to data"
The size of STATUS surveys usually make this impractical. Even the most up to date SNAP software (survey software) cannot accuratley read free text, this means every one (in my organisation about 10,000 surveys) need to be read and copied down manually, this is a huge, huge task before any kind of analysis has taken place.
Also: "nobody has been round to clean, garden for months is not doing their job properly". Which RSLs provide a cleaning and gardening service? Surley this is the tenants responsibility?
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Robert Latham | 16/02/2010 10:10 am
The manner in which the TSA's new regulatory framework is being introduced is far from satisfactory. How can RSLs prepare for the new standards which will apply from 1st April 2010 when these have yet to be issued? Indeed, it seems that RSLs will not be "registered providers" but "private registered providers" - terminology which has yet to be introduced in any primary legislation. The critical response of the Housing Law Practitioner's Association to the recent consultation can be found at www.hlpa.org.uk.
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London Tenant | 16/02/2010 10:37 am
London Tenant 2 | Tue, 16 Feb 2010 09:30 GMT
London Tenant
I do not want to get in to back and forth dialogue with you but make the following points:
There is no doubt that trying to analyse feedback from 10,000+ respondents would be problematic and I am not suggesting that all should be analysed but if things are to move forward as far as customer services goes and analysis of same, then some type of analysis sample needs to be taken. There has to be an audit of those issues that do not fit the usual service response that is given. In the same way you cite earlier that one out of 10,000 repairs has to be taken in to account, so does the fact that a large RSL with 35,000 properties (and therefore perhaps 100,00 tenants) is not going to be able to meet the customer service needs of all with same one size fits all solutions and Yes No tick box.
“Which RSL provides cleaning and gardening?” Answer: the many that are charging block management fees for same - to clean communal areas and tender communal gardens. If their contractor has not been around for six months, it demonstrates following:
Contractor non attendance;
Block Management Fees being collected for non service;
Note: there is usually a RSL management fee within the block management fee - again collection for non service;
RSL staff not calling round to inspect contractors work;
Monies remaining in finance dept. because no invoice from contractor - this should flag up contractor / service failures alone. Or worse, contractor charging, monies paid but no actual service to tenants;
It could of course simply meant that there has been a blip with communication between parties, whatever.
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