Supplementary memorandum by the Tenant
Participation Advisory Service (TPAS) (DEC 54(a))
TPAS is a membership organisation of over 300
social landlords and 1,000 tenant groups that exists to promote
tenant empowerment. It is a market leader in Tenant Participation
providing training, information services, conferences and consultancy
work. It is presently an ITA for a number of stock options appraisals
and transfer negotiations.
The evidence below expands on that provided
in TPAS' initial written response.
The key points TPAS wishes to make fall into
seven areas.
— Tenants should be involved from the
beginning of the process.
— Local Authority Tenant Compacts should
guide Tenant Involvement in achieving the Decent Homes Standard.
— Tenants should have the time to make
informed decisions. In keeping with Community Housing Task Force
guidance the stock options appraisal process should go at tenants'
pace.
— Tenants should be fully involved
in the recruitment of their Independent Tenants Advisors.
— Tenants should have as much direct
control over managing their ITA's and the budgets for them as
practicable.
— It is not clear that links are being
established between the Decent Homes Target and other parts of
the Sustainable Communities agenda.
— Clear links should be established
between the Decent Homes Target and Housing Management practice;
particularly Anti-Social Behaviour.
Wherever possible TPAS has attempted to provide
examples of both Good and Bad Practice in the paper below to illustrate
these points.
GENERAL POINTS
It is a matter of principle for TPAS that Local
Authorities should go beyond their legal obligation and hold a
ballot, no matter which option is chosen as the preferred route.
TPAS is neutral regarding all of the available
options to attain the Decent Homes Standard. It is crucial however,
that tenants are presented with a balanced view of the benefits
and implications of each of the options. In some of the case study
examples it is clear that the Local Authority has not been presenting
a balanced view, or has been selective about the information it
has provided. Similarly, TPAS has been disappointed with the actions
of Defend Council Housing in its selective use of information.
The harnessing of the Decent Homes Standard to narrow organisational
or political aims can only be detrimental to the needs and aspirations
of tenants.
Tenants should be involved from the beginning
of the process
Achieving the Decent Homes Target insists upon
major strategic decisions being made for the future of Local Authority
Housing. It is absolutely crucial that tenants understand all
of the available options and that the key strategic decisions
have not been made in advance. Quite apart from the legal
obligation for Local Authorities to consult their tenants about
the future of their homes there is a purely practical imperative
that if tenants have been involved in the decision making process
right from the beginning then they will be more likely to accept
the decision that is made.
It goes without saying that well informed tenants
that have been fully engaged in the appraisal process will be
more likely to vote for the preferred option.
Given that the Decent Homes Standard is very
much a minimum, discussion should be held at an early stage as
to whether a standard over and above the minimum, "Decent
Homes +" should be established. This is particularly
important as it may have an effect on financial viability of the
available options.
CASE STUDIES
TPAS was the ITA at Hartlepool Borough Council.
The following case study has been written from discussion with
the Resident Participation Manager.
Hartlepool Borough Council had initially considered
that its preferred option was ALMO status. There are Tenants and
Residents groups on the majority of the Councils' estates and
they were consulted about the range of options. The Council also
established information stands in local shopping centres. The
tenant umbrella group, Hartlepool Tenants Forum were involved
from an early stage and considered all the available options.
Through scoping exercises it quickly became
clear that tenants aspirations were for homes that exceeded the
Decent Homes Standard. A process of negotiation ensued to agree
a standard that was acceptable both to the Local Authority and
tenants bodies.
The negotiation of a "Decent Homes +"
standard meant that the most viable option became stock transfer.
The Local Authority were prepared to change their position to
reflect tenants' stock investment aspirations.
TPAS is employed as on a project in a South
London Borough on a piece of work not related to the stock options
appraisal process. It did not bid for the ITA project due to a
potential conflict of interest. The evidence below has been established
from discussion with TPAS' Associate on their project.
Before the recruitment of the ITA for the Boroughs'
stock options appraisal the Borough had already advertised the
"mix and match" option that it was preparing.
Areas of the Borough that have been excluded
from the ALMO option have been given misleading information around
the potential investment limits on the ALMO option in order to
promote an investment solution that appears to have been set in
advance.
TPAS is employed as an ITA for a Northern
Metropolitan Borough. The evidence below has been established
from discussion with TPAS staff providing ITA services.
In many ways the Local Authorities' practice
through stock options has been very good, however the ITA has
concerns regarding the establishment of the "Decent Homes
+" standard being promoted. The ITA is far from convinced
that this standard has been established with wide tenant consultation
and that there is little evidence that it meets the aspirations
of tenants. The standard may have been established to justify
the pre-decided investment decision of the Local Authority.
The Tenant Compact should be the guiding principle
for major strategic decisions
Aldbourne Associates noted in the recent Review
of the National Tenant Compact Framework that Local Authority
Compacts rarely, if ever, guide Tenant Involvement in strategic
decision making.
TPAS believes that Compacts have a useful role
in opening a forum for discussion with landlords that may not
have previously existed. Where open channels for discussion already
existed Compacts provide a useful framework to guide discussion.
"The first `Core Standard' of the National
Framework was that tenants would be involved in developing the
council's housing policy, strategy, including identifying and
appraising investment options, monitoring and review."
Community Housing Task Force: Good Practice
Briefing 1: Appointing an Independent Tenant Advisor, (ODPM,
2002) p. 2
For Stock Options Appraisal to be a truly transparent
process, and for the Compacts to be meaningful "living"
documents it is to be hoped that Local Authorities would make
use of their Compact in guiding their approach to the appraisal
process. Unfortunately, TPAS has been able to find no evidence
for this having happened.
Given that stock option appraisal is only the
start of a process of organisational and cultural change within
housing organisations it is of great concern that the significant
amounts of time and investment in Compacts seem to have been lost
when the key strategic decisions come to be made.
Those Local Authorities that have not started
their stock options appraisals or are beginning work towards transfer
ballot should be strongly encouraged to revisit their Compact
documents. Government should reaffirm its commitment to Compacts
and work with housing providers to devise ways of monitoring and
evaluating Compacts to ensure that these documents have "teeth"
and take their place at the centre of Tenant Involvement Practice.
CASE STUDY
Hartlepool Borough Council, accept that their
Compact stayed on the shelf when it came to designing their stock
options appraisal process. Post-transfer they have found the breathing
space to re-visit the commitments that were agreed in the Compact
and are reviewing it in the light of the lessons learnt from stock
options. They hope that Compact will be sufficiently flexible
in the future to be useful in developing future key investment
decisions.
The Stock Options Appraisal process should proceed
at the tenants pace
There is a real tension in the governments'
agenda around stock options appraisal. TPAS recognises that in
order to meet the 2010 deadline for Decent Homes Target the majority
of options appraisals will need to be completed by 2005. However,
this second deadline is in danger of overshadowing the broader
principle that tenants should be engaged in and informed by the
process.
All too often the timescale to complete the
options appraisal is dictated by the internal planning of the
Local Authority rather than the needs of tenants upon whom the
cultural and organisational change implied by the options is going
to impact. This tension will come into sharper relief as the 2005
deadline gets closer.
The discontinuity between the needs of tenants
and the planning of the Local Authority is reinforced by the lack
of suitably qualified ITA's in the market place. Tenants should
not feel obliged to select an ITA with whom they are not satisfied
in order to meet an externally dictated timescale.
CASE STUDIES
TPAS is the ITA in the London Borough of
Ealing. The information below has been taken from TPAS' letter
to the Community Housing Task Force in support of the Boroughs
decision to develop an ALMO.
The process to adopting the ALMO option in Ealing
has taken two years. In 2001, as a result of public consultation,
and the introduction of the Major Repairs Allowance it abandoned
its initial intention of moving to stock transfer.
In November 2002 Ealing Council Tenants &
Leaseholders Group sponsored an ALMO inquiry day which included
speakers form the Derby ALMO Chair and the Audit Commission.
In August 2003 TPAS was selected as ITA for
the options appraisal having initially been engaged in April 2001
through competitive interview to provide comprehensive training
on housing options. The training allowed Ealing Council Tenants
& Leaseholders Group to take a full part in the appraisal
process.
The group of tenants an councillors that had
been selected to consider Housing Options met some 12 times and
completed "a rigorous and robust" analysis of the available
options. It was of particular note that the Director of Housing
"fronted"' all of the community meetings.
The Ealing Council Tenants and Leaseholder Group
voted unanimously to back the development of an ALMO on 2 December
03.
TPAS commented "We are delighted with
the rigorous and transparent scrutiny of Housing Options in Ealing.
The meetings in the community have been very robust and challenging
about the need for improvement and investment but have been very
supportive of developing an ALMO".
TPAS was the ITA for the tenants of Swindon
Borough Council. The following evidence was gained through a `phone
interview with the lead tenant on Swindon Tenants' Voice.
The timescale to complete the options appraisal
in Swindon was very tight. Swindon Tenants' Voice did not feel
that they could reach the level of understanding they, and the
broader tenant community, required in the timescale that the Council
was suggesting. STV took advice from their Tenant Participation
Officers who were very helpful and went forward to recruit their
ITA.
An early action for the ITA was to make representations
to the Council on STV's behalf about the need for the timescale
to be extended. The Council duly extended the appraisal process
by three months. While the tenants still felt that the timescale
was tight, with focussed work they were confident that the appraisal
process was open and effective.
The option appraisal was noteworthy for the
fact that the surveyed views of tenants contributed 50% to the
final selection of the preferred option.
Tenants should be fully involved in the recruitment
of their ITAs
It is a key tenet of the governments' approach
to stock options appraisal that tenants should be confident that
their ITA should be well qualified to examine all of the data
impartially, should have skills in community consultation and
should be able to operate as an advocate for tenants' wishes.
In order to achieve this it is absolutely crucial that tenants
are skilled to take the lead in the writing of the consultancy
brief and recruitment of the ITA. Of course, in a great number
of cases tenants will require the support of Council Officers
to achieve this end and to make informed decisions, but as far
as it is practicable Local Authority involvement should be minimised.
Unfortunately, practice has been very mixed
in the recruitment of ITAs. Poor practice does not just undermine
the impartiality of the appraisal process it represents a missed
opportunity to establish good working practices for future.
CASE STUDY
TPAS delivered training to South Norfolk
Tenants' Forum before they recruited their ITA. The following
evidence was gained through a `phone interview with the Chair
of South Norfolk Tenants' Forum.
The Tenants' Federation were given the time
before the recruitment of the ITA to decide what training they
required in order to be able to manage the process properly. They
undertook three sessions of training covering Interview Techniques,
Writing Project Briefs and Report Writing. This "pre-training"
allowed them to take a strong lead.
Armed with the skills they needed, the tenants
wrote their own ITA brief, which was refreshingly direct. Tenants
formed the entire interview panel using questions written by themselves
and a weighted scoring system. They focussed their weighting on
their key concerns; that the ITA should be available in "emergencies"
and should have both the skills and strength to "keep an
eye on" the Council.
THE SOUTH
LONDON BOROUGH
MENTIONED ABOVE
In the South London Borough mentioned above
the tenants' choice of ITA was effectively overruled by the Council
and its financial consultant. It was only through the intervention
of TPAS and the threat of involvement from the Community Housing
Task Force that this decision was reversed.
Tenants should have as much control over the management
of ITA's and the budgets for them as practicable.
TPAS has campaigned for the establishment of
a central government budget that can be directly accessed by suitably
qualified tenants' bodies to recruit and manage ITAs. Lord Rooker,
as Housing Minister, agreed with TPAS that in principle tenants
should be able to both recruit and manage their ITAs. Recent discussions
have persuaded TPAS that while this is the ideal way of ensuring
independence it is not a practicable option. However, wherever
possible tenants bodies should be directly involved in setting
the budget for ITA provision according to their assessment of
the needs of the tenant community. Tenants should also be directly
involved in the management of budgets and the monitoring of ITA
delivery performance. Clearly, in many cases there will be issues
of capacity to be resolved, Local Authorities should make a clear
commitment that if tenants wish to direct the work of their ITA
they should have received sufficient training for this to be possible.
CASE STUDY
TPAS is the ITA at Wakefield Metropolitan
District Council. The evidence below was established from an interview
with members of Wakefield Tenants' Federation.
The tenants of Wakefield MDC were not invited
to assess the level of budget required to complete ITA work. However,
the tenants feel that the Local Authority has been supportive
of the work they do, and the Council has been happy to spend whatever
it takes to make sure the process is an effective one. It is particularly
interesting that the Tenants Federation take the first responsibility
for reviewing invoices and have sent back incorrect invoices to
the ITA in the past. The Tenants Federation directly control their
advisors' work, meeting monthly with the ITA for formal progress
review.
It is not clear that links are being established
between the Decent Homes Target and other parts of the Sustainable
Communities agenda.
The establishment of growth areas and market
renewal pathfinders in the Communities Plan is a welcome commitment
by the government to addressing the needs of the housing market
in England for the medium term. However, in order for the Sustainable
Communities agenda to be effective it is necessary for there to
be a clear link with the attainment of the Decent Homes Standard.
Similarly, the same rigorous standards of consultation and involvement
as stock options appraisal should be applied. Although it is very
early in the life of Sustainable Communities there is little evidence
that this is happening.
The short timescales for completion of option
appraisal, discussed above, often mean that the consideration
of broader issues can often not be addressed.
Clear links should be established between
the Decent Homes Target and Housing Management practice; particularly
Anti-Social Behaviour.
TPAS has been a vocal campaigner for stronger
intervention in the management of Anti-Social Behaviour. The high
priority that ASB has taken in the government policy is very welcome.
Stock improvement would seem to provide the perfect opportunity
to address and join-up action around the physical environment
with management intervention and "softer" community
solutions. While this discussion with communities would fall outside
of the narrow aims of Decent Homes and should not necessarily
be facilitated by ITAs there should be space for it within the
broad objective setting of the Local Authority to achieve Sustainable
Communities.
CASE STUDY
The following case study was included in
Housing Today, 5 December 2003. The Beacon Estate in Falmouth
was the winner of Deputy Prime Ministers' prize for Sustainable
Communities.
According to the Housing Today report, physical
renewal focussing on energy efficiency has been the catalyst for
estate renewal. However, action on improving the physical characteristics
of the homes has been co-ordinated with improvement the public
space. Tenant control has been a key element of the estates' success
and work on surveying has been delegated to tenants. Crucially,
for the reputation of the estate and for the management of ASB
the police have been closely involved.
"Before people always felt a bit isolated.
Now if there's a problem, police work with the council and team
up with housing officers to sort it out. Things aren't allowed
to develop so much."
Puckett K, Ten Ways To Spot a Sustainable
Community, Housing Today, 5 December 2003 (Housing Today Limited,
2003) p. 32
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