Monday, 21 May 2012

Advice on Board Membership

Posted in: Need to Know | Ask the Experts

02/11/2011 12:58 pm

GAVIN FISK

GAVIN FISK

Posts: 3

We are creating a housing board as part of intergrating two seperate local authority housing councils. It will have the authority/powers to make important decisions about the future of housing in both districts. The board will be made up of local councillors and tenants.  Do you think its appropraiate it terms of 'bias' that a member of staff in addition to being a tenant of one of these two councils applies to become a board member? Legally are their any arguments by prohibting a member of staff/tenant that we are discriminating against that individual?

Unsuitable or offensive? Report this discussion

Post a reply

Sort: Newest first | Oldest first

Author

Message

Both sides of the fence

Both sides of the fence

Posts: 47

02/11/2011 2:15 pm

I'd say it's a clear conflict of interest. Staff members who are tenants are excluded from being a board member of the ALMO where I live via the rules of the organisation and that is entirely appropriate.

Where I work I would need to get permission to become a board member and that permission wouldn't be given if it was a board member of the ALMO or one of the TMOs because of the same conflict of interest.

So in my opinion the terms of reference of the board would need to set out that staff members are excluded and the staff member couldn't argue with the terms of reference of the board, just as it would set out who could be a board member.

Unsuitable or offensive? Report this reply

F451

F451

Location: Europe
Posts: 181

02/11/2011 4:04 pm

Perhaps an enquiry should be made of the new regulator - I'm sure they will have an opinon abuot conflict of interest

Failing that there was good advice on governance to be had on the Housing Corporation website, and you could always discuss it with your regional liason.

In the absence of these there is already the Charity Commission - or have they closed that down too?

Unsuitable or offensive? Report this reply

Expert post

Blair Mcpherson

Blair Mcpherson

Posts: 54

16/11/2011 10:14 am

If a member of staff can be a tenant and a tenant can be on the  board then a member of staff who is a tenant can apply to be on the board. Provided that the boards constitution does not explicitly state otherwise.

Unsuitable or offensive? Report this reply

Rate this topic

  • 1 star out of 5
  • 2 stars out of 5
  • 3 stars out of 5
  • 4 stars out of 5
  • 5 stars out of 5

You must be signed in to rate.

Post a Reply

You must sign in to rate this topic or make a post

sign in register

Why not register?

Registration allows you to sign up for newsletters, comment on articles, add posts in the forums, quiz our panel of experts, and save articles and jobs in the My IH section.

Register now

Newsletter Sign-up

More Newsletters

Most active members

People are discussing

tags Accountability, advice, affordable housing, Allocations, antisocial tenant, arrears, Best Practice, care and support, careers, comment, complaint, council, councils, discrimination, discussion, eviction, HA renting, help, homelessness prevention, Housing, housing association, housing associations, housing policy, rent, urgent

Most discussed

Most recent posts

  • posted Anonymously, 20/05/2012 11:54 pm in My Housing Officer is very unhelpful

  • From Sparkle47, 18/05/2012 10:12 pm in Rules on assignment

    Thank you both for your responce. I'm a bit worried about under occupancy, as it's a 2 bed flat, but at lest we know its all overbroad. :)

  • From Will Nixon, 17/05/2012 6:17 pm in What defines a 'living' room

    The crux of the issue is whether the property is deemed to be "more extensive" than required and the criteria will be contained in the Landlord's own policies and procedures.

  • From Shaun Aldis, 17/05/2012 11:13 am in Repairs ban

    There are a few factors to consider, which are dependent upon what is in the tenancy agreement by type of tenancy i.e. social landlord or private lease. Normally the landlord is responsible for repairs unless stated otherwise and they should be carried out within a reasonable period of time, however again unless stated there are no fixed time limits, and the length of time considered to be reasonable would depend on the type and severity of the repair.  Most landlords will normally undertake repairs once they have been notified about them, however if they refuse or fail to do ...

  • From Paul Jones, 16/05/2012 11:04 pm in Tenancy status and mutual exchanges.

    Those with lifetime (periodic) tenacies swapping with another person with the same will still swap using a "Deed of Assignment" and take over eachother's tenancies, not begin new tenancies.  BUT, if fixed-term or "affordable rent" is involved on either side, new tenancies are started. I have studied the Localism Bill and this is what it says.

  • From Blair Mcpherson, 16/05/2012 1:01 pm in Why be a tweet

    I have recently joined twitter. I was initially reluctant but my son was very enthusiastic saying it was better than Facebook because it was easier to use, wasn't restricted to your " friends" and the limit on characters keeps comments short and to the point. For me twitting is a way to promote my articles and books to let others who share my interests know what is influencing me and to pick up on what others in my areas of interest are talking about. Of course I am not immune to the temptation to follow the trend.

  • From Shaun Aldis, 16/05/2012 12:54 pm in Fire risk or not?

    Where there's any question about the performance of a product, I would suggest that it's important to get the products in question back to the manufacturer or importer, for them to inspect them and advise you as to the cause of the damage. This response can then guide and feed into your risk analysis. This should be channeled through your product supplier, be that a wholesaler, distributor, or trade supplier. My experience of this is that the quality of manufacturers responses will be improved if details about the installed conditions, fault levels, cable run distance, Amperage/kW loading, and nature ...

  • From Matt Murdock, 16/05/2012 9:42 am in London Housing Assocition not building Social Housing -WHY??

    In short the powers are devolved by government to the Mayor and, in London, the GLA will take on the role previously undertaken by the Homes and Communities Agency.

  • From Jezz, 15/05/2012 4:17 pm in What is Social Housing there for...

    Primarily social housing exists to address an obvious market failure. However as social housing becomes more and more market-led the sector is increasing starting to emulate the problem it sought to address - quite ironic I suppose.

  • From H4rdwork, 14/05/2012 4:20 pm in being evicted

    Please don't get your hopes up following the post by Little Red Hen as it is incorrect on one key point: