More muscle

The Tenant Services Authority’s days appear numbered. So, what will fill the regulatory vacuum?

The new government is not very keen on regulation, certainly not by national quangos. It might well, through gritted teeth, agree that the economic regulatory role of the TSA, which covers the governance and financial viability of housing providers, should go to the Homes and Communities Agency. However, it will not send the so-called consumerist regulatory functions of the TSA going the same way.

According to housing minister Grant Shapps in June, the government is committed to enhancing tenant involvement and empowerment, retaining the TSA service standards and developing an effective complaints procedure.

Mr Shapps has suggested, in line with the Conservatives’ localism and ‘big society’ themes, that local tenant panels could make the consumer, i.e. the tenant, central to regulation. This has potential but the jury is still out.

The minister appears to have based his idea on the Welwyn Hatfield Community Housing Trust in his constituency, which has had a panel for 16 years. The 24 tenants and three leaseholders on the panel have a remit to focus on good partnership working, improving standards, monitoring performance, protecting tenants’ rights, influencing policy and setting priorities.

If LTPs are the future of housing regulation, they must empower tenants. This means they should be included in the the proposed Decentralisation and Localism Bill due to be placed before parliament in the autumn. The bill should include the following powers and duties:

• The power of LTPs to subpoena housing provider chief executives to appear before it. This power should cover contractors and decision makers.
• The power to trigger inspections and intervention following an investigation and production of a report.
• The power to oversee the mandatory external accreditation of all housing providers.

In line with ministerial thinking, LTPs could also have a role in the complaints process.

The bill should place a duty upon councils to support LTPs. Crime and disorder reduction partnerships may be a useful model here.

It should also place a duty upon housing providers to co-operate with LTPs’ work. That work remit should be broad to cover performance review and benchmarking, scrutiny, and holding boards and decision makers to account.

The Tenant Particpation Advisory Service and the other national tenants’ organisations are keen to have an on-going dialogue with ministers and policy makers and have started to look at the issues relating to LTPs.

Nigel Long is head of policy at the Tenant Participation Advisory Service