Coalition government yet to announce the fate of housing bodies

TSA sheds £2.7m to avoid quango axe

28 May 2010 | By Isabel Hardman

The Tenant Services Authority is slashing a further 10 per cent from its budget in an attempt to persuade the new government to keep it.

Chief executive Peter Marsh announced the cut, which is in addition to a 10 per cent reduction announced in January, at the regulator’s board meeting on Wednesday. He said it was part of preparations for constrained public sector spending.

This comes as housing minister Grant Shapps said he would be looking ‘very closely’ at the TSA. In an online interview, Mr Shapps also described the regulator as ‘a quango too far’, and said its funding could be better spent elsewhere.

The £2.7 million cut will come from the TSA’s £27 million administrative budget. Staff said there would be no cuts to programmes such as tenant empowerment. The regulator will also cut 10 per cent from its budget each year over the next two years.

The organisation recently merged its tenant services department with the policy, improvement and market intelligence team to save money.

Mr Marsh said the cuts and restructure would help prepare for central government cuts, although he refused to comment on the future of the regulator. He said: ‘Our board has been working on a response to what are inevitably going to be tighter financial conditions.

‘We have already made it quite public that we have reduced our operating costs by 10 per cent, and we are looking to make greater reductions next year and the year after.’

On Monday chancellor George Osborne announced £600 million of savings from cutting quangos. The fate of housing’s quangos, including the TSA, has yet to be announced.

Readers' comments (21)

Anonymous | 28/05/2010 9:29 am
The question is how effective is the TSA going to be with the proposed cuts?
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gordon thompson | 28/05/2010 9:37 am
Well...they weren't that good before - so the cuts will probably make them even worse. What Marsh has failed to grasp is that the TSA has failed to mak an impact - that is more relevant for any future deisions than frantically cutting now to try and survive. Perhaps he should look at his own value for money standard.
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Rick Campbell | 28/05/2010 10:40 am
I have certain views that some may find unpallatable - the main one is the fact that the TSA has not only failed to grasp that tenants saw them as a saviour (by being a tenants' "union") but also have become so wishy-washy by abandoning 'resident led' (very important words those to) in favour of 'co' (which could be short of "controlled by the landlord's staff).

In Macclesfield we transferred our housing stock nearly 4 years ago and whilst there is an undoubted whole raft of benefits accrued by that, only the landlords' take' on the offer document seems to prevail because participating tenants - sorry, "corporate-speak" rules, involved residents/customers/stakeholders - simply do not have the foresight, experience, will, intention or time and guts to examine everything in detail and fix what is wrong to benefit others.

This is not intended as a criticism of the abilities of those involved - it is, however, a critism in that those who have been allowed to be involved are relatively new to the ganme and succeptible to staffs' spin on things. The days of KLOEs and "prove what you say is correct" have now long gone - even the scant information available can be of relatively low quality.

One has to question the fit for purpose nature of TSA if it can afford to cut a whole swathe of dosh in order to protect their perceived 'lapdog' stautus rather than their 'watchdog' status which is what they appeared to be promoting themselves as.

These are sad days for those of who have participated for years - the newer generation perhaps can be forgiven for they may not what they do?
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Rick Campbell | 28/05/2010 10:44 am
Sorry, in my haste and low attention to detail - the last few words should have read " the newer generation perhaps can be forgiven for they may know not what they do".
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Michael Read | 28/05/2010 10:46 am
Whenever an organisation uses the phrase "tenant empowerment" reach for a gun.

It's so NuLabour - pointless, meaningless, propagandistic, deceitful.

So too the Tenant Services Authority. Is there anyone in the room who's been living on the planet for the last 30 years and doesn't realise the function of such organisations is first, foremost and last to survive? The means is the ends.

Mr Shapps. Tenants expect you to do your duty and close the whole shebang down.
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ILAG | 28/05/2010 2:24 pm
Absolutely. One of the first things that the TSA did, in it's pursuit of "light touch regulation" (which worked so well in the financial sector didn't it?) was the scrap the old Housing Corporation standards for HA's. As a lawyer writing in IH earlier commented. Taking an already weak regulatory regime and making it weaker. As only 4 HA's in the entire country are Audit Commission 3 star rated, one would have thought that the sector needed more regulation, not less. The TSA was a joke from the start; scrap it now and hand over regulation to the AC. They're not perfect but they're better than this shower.
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deanne oguz | 28/05/2010 3:03 pm
If Grant Shapps wants to maintain his high credibilty in the sector, he should stick to his plans to scrap the TSA! I cannot see what the TSA contribute to the housing sector, they have alienated tenants, and tried to get them to work against RSLs. The spending is outrageous and agree with the comments above, they are already an inefficient organisation, with more cuts I dread to think what monster it will become..... so I am backing Mr Shapps.. time to abolish the TSA, money could be better invested elsewhere!
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Tilly Ashton | 28/05/2010 3:45 pm
Question to Editor: could you direct me to Grant Schapps online interview....a google search didn't return anything?

Thank you,

Tilly
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Richard Colledge | 28/05/2010 6:29 pm
I agree that the TSA should be scrapped. Its promise of “tenant empowerment” is a sham. There can be no empowerment for Housing Association tenants unless they have the power to hire and fire. This means having the majority of places on all Boards – plus the majority of shares. Dream on!

What does TSA actually do for £34 Million p.a.? Landlords know they can tick their own boxes. TSA will not listen to individual tenants and those with complaints have to go to the Housing Ombudsman, which is usually a waste of time. Another candidate for the chopping block I hope.
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john bull | 28/05/2010 6:50 pm
£ 27 million on admin
scrap it all
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