You are viewing 1 of your 1 free articles
Housing association to provide all residents with lifetime tenancies
A housing association in the South West has announced it will scrap fixed-term tenancies in favour of lifetime contracts.
Bath-based Curo, which manages over 13,000 homes, will convert its 680 fixed-term tenancies to assured tenancies when the current term ends on each contract.
The majority of Curo’s tenants already have an assured tenancy with no set end date, meaning they cannot be evicted unless their landlord can provide a reason to the court.
Curo first told Inside Housing it was considering scrapping fixed-term tenancies in March this year.
The announcement came after several large housing associations, including Sanctuary Housing, Peabody, Your Housing Group and L&Q, announced similar policies to phase out fixed-term tenancies.
READ MORE
Curo said the decision was made in response to feedback from residents.
Victor da Cunha, chief executive at Curo, said: “We’ve listened to our customers who have fixed-term tenancies with us.
“We’ve heard how important having a long-term tenancy is to feel safe, secure and be able to put down roots in the local community.
“As a responsible social landlord, we try hard to really listen to and act on the feedback our tenants and other residents give us.
“Moving all our social tenants to lifetime tenancies is just one example of how customer feedback leads to changes for the better.”
Housing associations were given the option to offer fixed-term tenancies under the Localism Act in 2012, replacing the previous position where all tenancies in the social housing sector had been for life.
Most housing associations offer both life and fixed-term tenancies – typically of five years.
The government had once planned to phase out providing lifetime tenancies in social housing altogether, instead creating new rolling tenancies of five-year fixed terms for new tenants and those who inherited a tenancy.
However, it abandoned the plans in August last year with the launch of the Social Housing Green Paper.
#IHchat programme on Housing Day 2019
Tuesday 8 October is #HousingDay and Inside Housing is hosting a whole day of live Twitter Q&As with senior sector figures, including a live video conversation with Alison Inman and David Orr.
Tweet your questions to the panellists using the hashtag #IHchat at the times below:
8am – 8.45am: An introduction to #HousingDay
Leslie Channon, housing consultant and #HousingDay organiser – @LeslieChannon
Barry Malki, housing consultant – @barrybehaved
Chair: Carl Brown
9am – 9.45am: The next 100 years of council housing
Dominic Beck, cabinet member for housing, Rotherham Council - @Dominic_E_Beck
Emma Lindley, housing strategy lead, Ashfield District Council – @Emma_Lindley
Paul Smith, cabinet member for housing, Bristol City Council – @BristolPaul
David Renard, chair of the economy, environment, housing and transport board, Local Government Association – @CllrDavidRenard
Chair: Nathaniel Barker
10am – 10.45am: Providing the right homes in the right places
Alan Brunt, chief executive, Bron Afon Community Housing – @albrunt
Sheron Carter, chief executive, Habinteg Housing Association – @CarterSheron
Paul Hackett, chief executive, Optivo – @PaulHackett10
Tracy Harrison, chief executive, Northern Housing Consortium – @tjharrison1
Amy Nettleton, assistant development director – sales and marketing, Aster Group – @amynettleton1
Chair: Jack Simpson
11am – 11.45am: In conversation with Kate Henderson
Kate Henderson, chief executive, National Housing Federation – @KateNHF
Chair: Peter Apps
12am – 12.45pm: How can we tell a better story about social housing?
Victoria Dingle, tenant non-executive director, Soha Housing – @Victoria_Dingle
Steve Hayes, head of communications, Citizen – @SteveH_Citizen
Paul Taylor, innovation coach, Bromford – @PaulBromford
Boris Worrall, chief executive, Rooftop Housing – @BorisJWorrall
Chair: Carl Brown
1pm – 1.45pm: The homelessness and rough sleeping crisis
Faye Greaves, practice and policy officer, Chartered Institute of Housing – @FayeGreavesCIH
David Bogle, chief executive, Hightown Housing Association – @David_Bogle
Chair: Lucie Heath
2pm – 2.45pm: The regulatory landscape
Jonathan Walters, deputy chief executive, Regulator of Social Housing –@JonathanW_RSH
Jenny Osbourne, chief executive, Tpas – @TPASJenny
Steve Douglas, group chief executive, Aquila Services Group – @Steve_Altair
Chair: Gavriel Hollander
3.15pm - 4pm: IH Live video chat - the future role of social housing
Alison Inman, board member, Colne Housing, Saffron Housing and Tpas – @Alison_Inman
David Orr, chair, Clarion – @DavidOrrCBE
Chair: Nathaniel Barker
