Disagreement over government’s desire to hand-pick board
Worries over ‘Whitehall-led’ tenant voice
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The government has been accused of bypassing tenants so it can choose for itself who will represent them on a new national tenant council.
Representatives of the Communities and Local Government department have told the project group leading the development of the National Tenant Voice that it is ‘unlikely to accept’ the group’s suggestions for how the new body should be set up. They recommended the CLG should hand-pick the board instead. The NTV is expected to launch next summer as a champion of tenants’ issues, with an annual budget of £1.5 million.
The project group of tenant leaders and CLG officials sent draft proposals to the housing minister last month, putting forward a vision of an organisation run ‘by tenants for tenants’.
But confidential minutes of a meeting earlier this month between the CLG and the project group, seen exclusively by Inside Housing, show a ‘heated discussion’ about the set-up process after the CLG took legal advice. Its proposal would give the government much more control than the project group had envisaged.
‘Members of the [project] group were unhappy with the proposals for the CLG recruiting the initial board,’ the minutes state. ‘This would have no input from tenants who could feel they were being written out of the equation.’
Dorset tenant and project group member John Conroy expressed his anger at the situation. ‘You’re not getting a tenant-led organisation, you’re getting a government organisation.’
CLG officers agreed to meet with the project group again to discuss alternatives to hand-picking the board.
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Readers' comments (7)
kass | 21/11/2008 9:40 am
We got to have tenants representatives wherever they are and in whichever body they serve to be elected directly from tenants... The governement, and the Tenant's agency must set up a national tenants electors register giving each tenancy a vote... matters put to vote should be online and or in the press and us tenants be allowed to vote online by phone or by postal ballot... Until this is achieved tenants' representative are not democratically elected.
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Vernon Yarker | 21/11/2008 9:59 am
Yes they are pretty unrepresentative and they have largely, it would appear, been usurped. What they seem to have cleverly done is to convert the representative organisations to a point where they feel that they are actually a part of Government and 'in the know' which enhances their perceived self importance . In the process, it seems, they stop questioning decisions for the good of the tenants and become a part of the decision making process instead !
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Ben doon | 21/11/2008 3:59 pm
it seems yet again the government want tenants to be involved in the tenants voice but under there conditions i was led to believe this was a tenant led group run by tenants for tenants and not by a bureaucrat who knows better than us we represent tenants from across the country who knows better not a hard question to answer it should be tenants who decide who should be on the board that way we can make a difference
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Jimmy Devlin | 21/11/2008 4:42 pm
NWTRA feels it all comes down to the "Tenant Participation" industry wishing to continue to be considered as "Representative " of tenants .
We were puzzled as to why TPAS (amongst others)was originally invited to be part of the NTV project group whilst the 5 truly representative regional tenants' federations were excluded.
It is now clear that, as we suspected, the "National Tenants Voice" was never envisaged to be anything of the kind.
Perhaps it should be renamed something akin to "The National Voice for those ,compliant not necessarily representative of tenants ,who agree with Government policies".
Remember that the constitution of every independent representative tenants' organisation stipulates and demands that they must operate in a non-party political manner at all times.
The TPAS suggestion that 10,000 "trained " tenants (I wonder who will "train" them? You guessed it) be used as an available pool of tenants is ridiculous in the extreme.Why stop at 10,000 ?
The NTV must be fully accountable to all tenants (both collectively and individually ) and unless the process for involvement is fully transparent and democratic , the whole project should be shelved until the required capacity can be built and evidenced across all 9 English regions.(Democratic tenants' structures )
This was put to Professor Cave by myself and others during his review workshops , in Manchester and London,and is why his final report referred to the need to build on what was already in situ (i.e. the 2 national and 4 democratic representative regional tenants' federations .The Cave report acknowledged TAROE;NFTMO;NWTRA;YHF;FORT SW; & NECTAR at that time). Unfortunately those responsible for setting up the NTV project group failed to act on Martin Cave's recommendations and things have gone progressively from bad to worse .
I hear reports every week about excellent ,often long established, local tenants' umbrella organisations having their funding and support withdrawn by certain Landlord organisations and only by building the requisite truly democratic structure can this be prevented and quickly reversed.
Tenants nationally need to unite as never before to say to Government "Please think again" . Yes we support the establishment of a National Voice for tenants, but it must be conditional on democratic accountability to tenants and actual "Independence".Otherwise the NTV will be meaningless for most tenants from the start.
Unless the vast majority of tenants support the NTV it will inevitably lead to massive problems in future for both the Tenants' Movement and the Government , and will prevent the required development of mutual trust and understanding which is essential to its success.
We all wanted this project to succeed, now we are unsure whether or not it ever can.
Jimmy Devlin Chairman North West Tenants & Residents Assembly
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michael barratt | 21/11/2008 8:26 pm
New Labour in establishing the National Tenants Voice has in my opinion attempted to homogenize housing association and council tenants as though their rights were qualitatively the same in order to undermine the present secure tenancies of council tenants and push on with the process of council housing privatisation. In my view, from a tenants’ perspective there is no point in there being a National Tenants’ Voice until housing association enjoy under legislation the same secure tenancies and rights as those enjoyed by council tenants and not vis-à-vis. I also consider that the new Tenant Services Authority is a similar poisoned chalice. First housing associations tenants joined later by council tenants, there must be harmonization, so the next step is likely the degradation of council tenants rights to correspond with those of housing association tenants – what next, local authorities given the same mandatory powers of eviction as their housing associations counterparts?
I am not surprised that New labour would carefully pick 'tenant representatives' for themselves - they would wouldn't they.
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John | 21/11/2008 9:54 pm
It seems to me the project board members here are in a predicament as to the way forward on this issue. To raise the profile of tenant issues and to give an unambiguous voice on behalf of all tenants was the perceived hopes for the NTV. However if the reports are true that there is manipulation from government in the decision process of those that should represent tenants interests this is unacceptable.
The tenant movement has made significant strides over its past history; if it was to succumb to this pressure the term empowerment would have no meaning for tenants.
Members of the project board must insist upon transparency, and accountability to those they represent, yet be strong enough to walk away if their cogent arguments are ignored by government. Not an easy option for those involved to contemplate, yet one they must consider.
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nik masters | 25/11/2008 9:46 am
I attended the NTV Launch.
There was also a consultation; the majority were in agreement,
the National Tenants Voice has to be independant and non-political.
How this can / will be achieved is up to all of us.
( One of the possible ways is suggested by Kass .... thank you )
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