Starlord

• Comment on: Thinking cap

  Starlord's comment | 25/07/2010 5:27 am

  Once upon a time there was the ‘Fair Rents Officer’ who would assess the PSL rent and reduce it accordingly if needs be. And the tenant did not have to make up the difference from wages or benefits! Then along came Margaret Thatcher, and the rest is history!
  
  Love, Light & Laughter
  Starlord

• Comment on: Tenants cut loose

  Starlord's comment | 25/07/2010 3:39 am

  To date I've had no luck whatsoever making contact with the NTV despite sending emails! They appear to be as remote as the others. They "aim to reach those tenants currently unrepresented by existing groups". Do they indeed! How so? I've been hearing this for well over a year now. Hopeless! I think good riddance myself! Something far more ‘down to earth’ at the ‘grass roots’ level where tenant’s really live is called for, and not something so remote that is filled with many of the ‘usual suspects’. It must also be a level playing field!
  
  TENANT PANELS
  I cannot see how the idea of a ‘tenant panel’ would work if simply tacked on to existing approaches. What if the landlord refuses to admit a complaint through their 'complaints process' in the first place? This is very common in my own experience when dealing with my landlord New Charter Housing Trust Group Limited based in Tameside, Greater Manchester.
  How could the 'tenant panel' even be involved if the ‘landlord is in Control’? No ‘Communities in Control’ here! The ‘tenant panel’ would be completely unaware of the complaint!
  It would be absolutely essential that tenants elect tenants to serve on this ‘tenant panel’. The landlord should not be allowed to select 'nodding donkey’ tenants, as is so often the case at present under the current ‘tenant involvement’ agenda where landlords are in charge! It must be done independently of the landlord.
  Perhaps we could have a tenant elected ‘tenant panel’ comprised of tenants chosen from tenants of all Social Landlord’s, based perhaps on Wards or Constituencies. No landlord would be in charge and tenants of different landlord’s would collectively judge all landlords! That sounds like a good idea to me! I like the sound of that!
  
  HOUSING OMBUDSMAN (RSL's)
  The Housing Ombudsman is powerless to act unless a written agreement or contract exists between landlord and tenant, or between landlord and tenant group. In other words the landlord can easily ignore tenant groups that don’t meet ‘their’ criteria! Too much power is in the landlords’ hands!
  Further, no written agreement exists between landlord and non-constituted tenant groups. As such the landlord is not obliged to do anything and any grievance such a tenant group may have has no value when presented to the Housing Ombudsman. Again the Housing Ombudsman is powerless to act simply because there is no written agreement! And the landlord holds all the aces for they are not obliged to provide funding to facilitate meetings of such an embryonic tenant group until it is both formally constituted and agrees to the landlord’s terms!
  
  And when a complaint is made about Governance matters a 'tenant panel' will be ineffective simply because the Housing Ombudsman is powerless to act on such matters. The landlord can simply ignore any such complaint as well as the views of a ‘tenant panel’ and let it pass to the castrated Housing Ombudsman!
  
  NTV & TSA
  It has not been my experience that the TSA has been a “tenant-focussed regulator” at all! The TSA was supposed to have some power in relation to Governance matters but this has not been my experience.
  I for one would feel no remorse at the passing of the TSA, and the Housing Ombudsman for that matter. They can both 'bite the dust' for all the use they have been to date! If retained they need a complete overhaul. Something with real teeth is needed to empower tenants, something that would 'fit in' with this Coalition Government's ideas of the 'Big Society.'
  
  I agree that the demise of the NTV and perhaps even the TSA will “send a ‘worrying message’ to landlords which do not want to involve tenants in decisions.” I know this would be the case with New Charter Housing Trust Group Limited!
  
  What the NTV ought to have been doing and what it actually was doing are not necessarily the same! What feed-in mechanisms were there for tenants? How was the NTV going to reach down towards disenfranchised tenants who have no tenant representation and those tenants who are intentionally dis-empowered by their landlord! How would they reach out to tenants independently of their landlords?
  
  I sincerely hope that grass-roots tenant empowerment is on the agenda and that the Coalition Government will enable real grass-roots feedback about such matters as "rents, regulation, housing revenue account reform”, etc. As it stands I have no such means and haven’t had any such means for the whole of my 26 years tenancy to date!
  
  Love, Light & Laughter
  Starlord

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