Groups seek reassurance that local standards have not been ‘watered down’
Tenants concerned by TSA standards
Worried tenant groups requested meetings with the Tenant Services Authority this week to seek assurances it has not watered down the demands placed on landlords to work with residents.
The TSA’s new regulatory framework, published on Tuesday, has re-branded the ‘local standards’ landlords are expected to agree with their tenants as ‘local offers’.
Tenants’ organisations are concerned the change of wording indicates a shift that would see landlords make an offer to tenants rather than meet the standards residents demand.
A source at one tenant group said: ‘We are worried that landlords could now avoid the full dialogue with tenants and the partnership working previously demanded in the consultation on the framework. These seem to have been lost now.’
Peter Marsh, chief executive of the TSA, said the wording was intended to enforce the importance of local agreements and not to dilute them.
He added: ‘The change is to reflect the feedback that we were given that people were at risk of seeing the local standards as optional extras to our six national standards.’
Richard Capie, director of policy at the Chartered Institute of Housing, said: ‘The expectation around what those offers are is still going to be the same.’
Overall, the sector has embraced the framework for taking on concerns aired in the consultation. The CIH gave its ‘full backing’ to the document, and the National Housing Federation praised the new framework as a ‘massive step forward’ from the previous Housing Corporation regulatory regime.
The new framework: what the TSA changed
- The six ‘national standards’ have been renamed ‘TSA standards’, while ‘local standards’ have become ‘local offers’
- Landlords must consider equality and diversity when applying all six standards
- The deadline for annual reports has moved from 1 July to 1 October
- Providing greater clarity on when the TSA will step in to investigate a landlord
- Clarifying the TSA’s role in investigating complaints, along with its relationship with the housing ombudsman
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Readers' comments (2)
Simon Stokes | 19/03/2010 8:14 am
"Tenants’ organisations are concerned the change of wording indicates a shift that would see landlords make an offer to tenants rather than meet the standards residents demand."
I think the problem here is the use of the word "demand". Firstly tenants have no right to "demand" anything above what is in their tenancy agreement or current Government policy so that word just makes it worse.
Too many tenants have unreasonablby high expectations anyway, housing organisations only have as much money as the tenants pay them, so there has to be realism on both sides. Its no good complaining about rent increases and then moaning because your house isn't at the high standard they "demand"!
Hopefully this will bring some realism to this whole debate on standards of housing from both sides, it will be interesting to see how it is dealt with.
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Janet Storar | 22/03/2010 9:53 am
As a tenant and also a board member, I feel I should respond. Tenants do have a right to "expect" that their home is secure, warm and well maintained. This maintenance I appreciate is a "two-way street" but the best social landlords take asset management very seriously - it is after all in their interests to keep their stock in the best possible condition.
However, to play devil's advocate, there may be underlying reasons for this change - the English language has very subtle nuances.
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