Tumultuous Lurker
Recent activity
Comments (2)
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Comment on: Portillo calls for social housing cuts
Had Michael Portillo made those statements in any other forum, he would have been up on a charge of plagiarism.
The fact is that they are not his ideas. He was quoting directly from Alex Morton's discussion paper, published 3 weeks ago through the think-tank Policy Exchange. He did not have the courtesy to acknowledge this. -
Comment on: Out of commission
We are of course considering the major notorious events in Local Government. Am I not correct in thinking that OFSTED have been using small teams of private inspector consultancies to carry-out school inspections for years.
I guess it must be possible to offer Housing, Local Government and Health Trust inspections to small consultancies on the same basis - they will cut their own throats on price, to win the work. Standard Inspection models / timescales have been used for some years, so tendering should be relatively easy.
Discussions (2)
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Invalid html
During the past 2-3 weeks, I seem to be having trouble with posts being stopped, citing "Invalid html".
Can anyone help ?
TL -
TSA-A new regulatory framework for social housing (2)
The purpose of this thread is to discuss the implications of the TSA regulatory proposals from a professional's perspective.
"A5.17,..........
All of the following will be replaced by the new reg
Posts (73)
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Posted in: TRANSFER OFFER DOCUMENTS
The answer must of course be that it depends upon the wording of your own transfer agreement / contract. I would ask to see the relevent section Rick. Officers wouldn't dare to lie to you.
Some sections are out of the hands of the Association, e.g. rent increase formulae. However there will be others where the officers are absolutely correct, e.g. Perhaps No new (chargeable) services to be introduced within the first 5 years.
TL
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Posted in: Expertise please - rent regime after 2015?
You will have deduced by now Paul, that most people who contribute to this discussion board are not expert in any way at all. Most of them are tenants who have never worked in the Social Housing Sector. You will recognise the expert opinion by the blue background to their posts, and their true identity being revealed.
IH should really rsetirct the replies to those people selected for their experts panel.
TL
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Posted in: Why are former tenants arrears no been chased?
Cynthia,
I fully understand your frustration in observing the lack of success in recovering former tenant's debts. However, the reality of the situation is that they are notoriously difficult recover economically for some of the following reasons,
- The landlord may not know a new address.
- The landlord has very few punitive measures which can be taken against a debtor, other than adding more debt to the total (which tends not to scare the debtor)
- It is possible to obtain an "attachment to earnings" on the debtor (Court Order deducted direct from their salary), but they are often not in work.
- The cost of chasing the debtor, either through a contractor or the direct employment of specialist staff, is often prohibitive.
Hope this helps to show how difficult the problem actually is.
TL
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Posted in: Constitution/Term of Reference/Mandate
Junior
"what is the best form of protect(ion) for tenants" (?)
It is always wise for any body, meeting on a regular basis, to have Terms of Reference or a constitution. This ensures that everyone will know precisely why they are there, and the terms under which they are operating.
However, the "best form of protect(ion) for tenants" is to conduct themselves professionally and respectfully, and then they will not need protection.
TL
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Posted in: What steps do I take to become a Housing Officer?
Rosie,
I would suggest that you make maximum use of your experience in temp customer service posts. You need to catch the eye of the manager carrying out the short-listing exercise, and this means highlighting all of the "Essential" attributes from the Person Specification and use any life experience or knowledge picked-up by studying / researching, to show that you meet the specification.
Finally, include some comments in your application, that show you know a great deal about your potential employer, and that you desperately want to work for them. Employers like to be flattered.
Don't give up !
TL