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Houses await demolition: a neighbourhood in limbo.

Backed by the Scottish Tenants Organisation.

In support of tenants in Hamiltonhill fighting for investment in their community.

National Demonstration.  Thurs, 24th Sept.

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The story was broken to the public at large by the Burgh Angel community newspaper in Glasgow this week, that tenants in Hamiltonhill have been fighting for investment to improve security and safety in the scheme.  The Hamiltonhill Action Group is demanding that the GHA fit steel doors to closes in the scheme, as a means of improving the safety and security on the scheme.

Burgh Angel Story: Drawing Steel From Granite; Hamiltonhill Hits Back

[Pdf file]

Tenants in the area have published a manifesto.  The seven point programme published by the Action Group, lists the following objectives of the group:-

Hamiltonhill Action Group Programme

* No to forcing people out of their homes.  Yes to investment.
* A dry warm home for all.
* A safe, secure community.
* Facilities for children and families must be kept and improved.
* Our homes and our surroundings should be a pleasant place to be.
* Our rents must be affordable, for all of us.
* This is our community.  We demand respect!

Have we became such an unequal society that demands such as these are not to be met?

The STO has endorsed requests from local tenants in the area to act on this issue.  We are therefore calling for a national demonstration.  In the past few months the GHA – the huge and unaccountable stock transfer landlord, whose actions in pursuing rapacious demolitions (more than 20,000 in 7 years; one quarter of its initial stock)  in recent years has led in part to the shock news published by Shelter Scotland, that the availability of social housing was at an all time low.  Hamiltonhill is another area set aside for demolition.  That means it has seen massive underinvestment, as all non-essential investment works have been halted.  Hamiltonhill has been in this position of limbo for years.

Isn’t it time that something changed?

Tenants and the STO are now calling a national demonstration, on the 24th of September, to demand investment in public sector housing.

• We demand steel doors for Hamiltonhill.  We demand real investment.
• We demand an end to unnecessary demolitions.
• We demand an end to the failed policy of stock transfer.
• We demand an end to write to buy.  We demand debt write-off for local authorities, to give council a level playing field.
• We demand that public sector housing is an option of choice.  We demand respect, in Hamiltonhill, across Scotland.

Let’s say it loud and clear, “Scotland’s for Council Housing!”

See you on Thursday the 24th of September, in Glasgow.

[Details to follow soon.  Please get in touch if you hope to attend: agahst2003[AT]hotmail.com, hamiltonhillaction[AT]googlemail.com]

Shelter said more affordable housing was needed to meet rising demand

The number of council and housing association homes for rent is at its lowest for 50 years, according to Shelter Scotland.

The charity has warned of a “growing chasm between the number of homes needed and the number available”.

The Building Pressure report said there were 142,000 households on the waiting list for council homes.

The housing and homelessness charity said the right to buy scheme was partly to blame for the shortage.

Its report said the number of social homes for rent last year was at its lowest level since 1959.

The figure had dropped to 599,000 in 2008, which represented an 18% fall since 1998.

The report said that 135,000 homes had been sold through right to buy over the previous decade.

It’s a crisis that’s built up over time and can only be solved by building more homes Graeme Brown Shelter Scotland

In 2001, there were 3.9 people on council waiting lists for every let.

By 2008, this had risen to 6.6 people. The charity said that on current rates it would take almost seven years to find a house for everyone already on housing waiting lists.

The number of people in temporary accommodation had increased by 135% between 2001 and 2008.

In real terms, Shelter Scotland said this meant at least 17,000 people, including 7,000 children, were in temporary housing – enough to fill Tynecastle Stadium in Edinburgh.

The report marks the start of a campaign by the charity to secure a commitment from the Scottish Government to build 30,000 affordable rented homes by 2012. This is the date set by the government for ensuring all homeless people have the right to permanent accommodation.

Shelter Scotland director Graeme Brown said: “The Building Pressure report lays bare the chasm between the number of homes needed and the number available to house Scotland’s people.

The report marks the start of a Shelter campaign

“People are losing their jobs and their homes, piling pressure on a system already at breaking point. It’s a crisis that’s built up over time and can only be solved by building more homes.”

Mr Brown added: “The Scottish Government’s medicine of bringing forward cash from next year’s budget is welcome but the doses of cash for housing overall are inadequate. Last year’s budget fell short of Shelter Scotland and other housing experts’ projection of what we need to end the housing crisis.

“We cannot afford to make the same mistake in 2009. Scotland’s people, its reputation and its recovery depend on tough funding decisions and decisive action.”

In response to the Shelter Scotland report, Housing and Communities Minister Alex Neil, said: “This government agrees with Shelter that right to buy has been a disaster for the provision of low cost social housing for rent.”

The government said reforms proposed in the draft Housing Scotland Bill would end the right to buy for new social housing tenants.

Industry response

Mr Neil said: “Between 1980 and 2005 nearly 450,000 homes for social rent were sold at a discount as a result of right to buy, without being replaced by new properties. That is a shameful statistic.

“Although we do not agree with their numbers, we do agree with Shelter that more affordable homes are required. Work will start this year on more than 1,300 new council homes in Scotland, backed by £26m from the Scottish Government.”

However, Conservative housing spokesman Jamie McGrigor said it was “shameful” to blame right to buy for the current position.

The problems of affordable housing shortages will not be solved simply by an extra cash injection this year Jacqui Watt Scottish Federation of Housing Associations

He said the lack of social housing was a direct result of bad planning by the previous Labour/Liberal Democrat coalition, which had not been addressed by the SNP.

“Right to buy was the most significant, socially liberating policy ever introduced by any government,” he said.

“It has given thousands of Scots the opportunity to improve their standard of living and certainly does not affect the number of homes available.”

Alan Ferguson, director of the Chartered Institute of Housing Scotland, said: “The challenge is for us all to come together and begin to identify new ways to secure affordable housing to meet the needs of people in Scotland.”

Jonathan Fair, chief executive of Homes for Scotland, said: “We have to find ways of attracting and encouraging private finance into the affordable housing sector by building for rent and low cost sale in the open market.”

The chief executive of the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations (SFHA), Jacqui Watt, said: “As this Shelter report shows, the problems of affordable housing shortages will not be solved simply by an extra cash injection this year.”

STO Newsletter (summer 09)

From SNP website:-

A return to council housing was launched today as the SNP Government announced support for over 900 new council homes across Scotland.

Funding of £17 million will see homes built from East Lothian to Orkney as the SNP continues to turn around Scotland’s social housing.

Under Labour only 6 council homes were built in eight years.  The SNP has also moved to abolish right to buy on new build houses.

Half of the funding will support homes in Edinburgh and the Lothians were housing is under pressure.

Housing Minister Alex Neil announced the funding saying;

“The Scottish Government is investing record amounts in affordable housing, more than 1.5 billion pounds over three years, despite the tightest settlement from Westminster since devolution.

“These are hard times for businesses and families across Scotland and this government is working hard to meet this challenge, refocus activity and ensure Scotland gets through the economic downturn in the strongest possible position.

“Building on this, the announcement today will help the successful local authorities to reverse decades of decline in council house building as well as safeguarding jobs, supporting the construction industry and keeping the economy moving.”

Areas benefiting from the government funding include Aberdeenshire, Edinburgh, East Lothian,Falkirk, Fife,Midlothian, Moray, North Ayrshire, North Lanarkshire – 1 million pounds for 40 homes, Orkney, Perth and Kinross, South Lanarkshire, Stirling and West Lothian.

Lothians MSPs welcomed the announcment which will see over 600 new homes built in Edinburgh and the Lothians.

Shirley-Anne Somerville called on the UK Government to offer similar support by writing off the housing debts of local authorities;

“672 new homes in Edinburgh and Lothians will have a positive impact on housing in the region.

“Ending the right to buy on new build council homes has given councils the freedom to begin building social housing again.

“In contrast to this support from the SNP it remains disappointing that Labour refuse to right off the housing debts of local authorities – brought about by the imposition of right to buy.  When Alasdair Darling can bail out the banks he should look strongly at supporting Scotland’s councils.”

Livingston MSP Angela Constance added;

“After only 6 council houses were built in the Labour years this funding will deliver 970 new homes, on top of those council’s are already building themselves.

“That West Lothian has won over £2.4 million of funding for 248 homes is a real recognition of the work the council has put in to bringing housing back onto the agenda and to meeting the challenges of our ever expanding population.

“Too often housing concerns are focussed on our cities.  This funding shows the SNP Government recognises the need for housing across the country, whether in urban areas like West Lothian or rural parts of Aberdeenshire.

“Affordable good quality housing is essential and the SNP is delivering better housing across Scotland.”

Scottish Tenants Organisation

Thursday 12th February 2009

The Times announced on Thursday 30 January 2009, that Gordon Brown had ordered thousands of new council houses. At the same time Nicola Sturgeon was announcing a huge boost to public sector building in Scotland. Gordon Brown said “ Today let me be clear: if local authorities can convince us that they can deliver quickly-and cost-effectively – more of the housing that Britain needs, and if local authorities can build social housing in sustainable communities that meets the aspirations of the British people in the 21st century, then we will be prepared to give them our full backing and put aside anything that stands in their way.

(Gordon Brown, New Local Government Network, 29 January)

This announcement which is a significant change in government policy has to be welcomed, however we have heard similar warm words before with no clear strategy being applied to make the words reality. In other words, can the government be trusted?

Similarly, when Nicola Sturgeon was stating that council house building in Scotland was to be given a massive kick start, it emerged that out of an announcement about government supported house building, more than five thousand had been built by Housing Associations and that around four hundred and eighty had been built by local councils. There seems to me to be a certain disparity there and possibly not a little confusion. In making this announcement was Nicola Sturgeon perhaps getting a bit mixed up between housing built in the public sector through local authorities and those being built in the private sector by Housing Associations? I think a little clarity is called for here as herein lie many of our difficulties, because public housing and social housing are quite distinct.

Social housing blur

We need clarity on this issue if the words are to mean anything in reality. If council house building is to be given a massive boost as announced then we have to stop confusing council housing with housing in the social sector. This is important for a number of reasons. Primarily because lumping all housing not built by private developers under the title of social housing was part of a deliberate attempt by the Thatcher government to blur the differences between the sectors so that people would be more easily fooled into believing that stock transfers were not privatisation. Just as investing in housing through Housing Associations is also being promoted as not being investment in privatisation. If there is to be support for council housing then lets get the language and the definitions right at the start so that everyone understands what is being referred to when discussing housing problems. Lets call public housing, council housing and leave social housing to Registered Social Landlords, i.e. housing associations.

“ affordable housing”

Another example of the importance of the language being abused is on the term “ affordable housing”. Who decides what is affordable? It certainly is not the tenants. This is one more issue that needs clarity through debate. A tenants definition would probably be close to a definition of `rents and services that are calculated to leave those on low incomes with enough money to afford a decent quality of life`. Not the definition which is currently being applied, I think.

I mention these examples to show how language is deliberately used to confuse and obscure what is going on.

And what is going on has led us to the mess we are in and the crisis in housing which Scotland is presently facing. This crisis in housing demands some straight talking.

What about the real crisis in housing

For a start lets stop talking about the crisis in the housing market and lets talk about the crisis in housing. This crisis would be the one which has been in existence for some long time and which refuses to go away even in the so called good times. This is the crisis where forty thousand people are classified as homeless and over one hundred and ninety thousand people are on housing waiting lists. Many more also suffer in silence in overcrowded or unhealthy conditions or struggle to find affordable accommodation on a low wage in a high housing cost area. Many homes are unfit and huge amounts of public housing has been given away at knock down prices while remaining tenants pick up the costs through their rents. Added to this is the fact that thousands of houses that could have been refurbished have been demolished to make way for private housing.

These statistics are a shocking indictment on any government.

According to government figures, 24,744 houses were built in Scotland in 2007. Of these 21,386 were built by private developers. 3,300 by Housing Associations and the public sector built just 28.

How is this meant to solve our crisis in housing? It never has in the past. We have to move away from the idea that everyone wants to be a homeowner. In fact succesive governments seem to believe that everyone needs to be a homeowner . This is one more area which needs clarity and examination. Governments over the years have promoted homeownership as the only game in town. Deregulation of borrowing has allowed the agenda to run full tilt.

Dodgy research and disapearing homeless

Drastic cuts have been made to public investment, then governments tell us that research has shown that most people now want to own their home. What they don`t tell you is that the so-called research was policy driven and designed to meet current market ideologies

An outstanding example of this policy driven research is the model used to calculate housing need in Scotland. The Housing Need and Affordability Model currently in use is based on the assumption that low-cost housing will only be made available to those who absolutely cannot afford anything else. Also those who are deemed to have an income that could support a mortgage do not feature on housing waiting lists. This kind of sleight of hand allows places like Glasgow which has a backlog of 29,000 on the waiting list to turn that figure into just 2,900.

This policy driven deeply flawed research must be ditched in favour of a genuine calculation of housing need if we are to get anywhere near to a proper starting place to address our housing crisis. Council housing must not be seen as housing of last resort. Council housing must be able to be a tenure of choice.

The private market has never delivered secure housing that people can afford and the rush to transfer public housing into the private sector has not added any more housing to the mix.

Privatisation of some of our communities or “ community ownership”

In fact, housing stock transfers have not only resulted in the privatisation of lots of public housing, they have also resulted in the privatisation of some of our communities.

Some of my relatives rent from a Registered Social Landlord.

This landlord runs the local gala days that were traditionally organised by communities themselves. The landlord also runs the Christmas parties as well as the New Year celebrations. The Community Centre is also under the cotrol of the landlord.

The Chairperson of the Board of this landlord addresses friends and neighbours he has lived with for decades as his “customers” in his annual reports to the landlords AGM.

This is what in the twisted language of privatisation is known as “ community ownership”.

Genuine community regeneration? Is it genuine community planning?

Much of the same holds true for community regeneration and community planning.

These are all someone else’s terms coined for someone else’s purposes. The community supposedly referred to by these terms are not part of the planning and decision making processes for so-called community regeneration or for so-called community planning. The planning, the decision making and the implementation of these exercises are all done by those not from the communities being regenerated or having their communities planned. The involvement, if any, of our communities is purely tokenistic. Although the structural and financial contributions that are exacted from communities is quite considerable; regeneration budgets as well as community planning budgets are all set well out of the reach of our communities and any planning is done in advance of the invitations for communities to get involved.

Once the master plan has been constructed communities are then tagged on at the end to give an impression of community involvement; in reality communities are only involved in someone else’s agenda. This is not genuine community regeneration nor is it genuine community planning.

Housing Supply Task Force

A further example is the the work of the Housing Supply Task Force. When this was established the Scottish Tenants Organiation asked if it could have a place on this body. We recieved a short sharp, No! from the Communities Minister.

And if you follow the deliberations of the Task Force you will see that one of their recommendations on dealing with the Government`s Community Engagement strategy is to define this as a barrier to the Government’s housing agenda and to suggest that communiies must be engaged through PR exercises to appraise them of the benefits of giving rein to private developments and intrusions into greenbelt land.

The system from the point of view of communities, just seems to roll over communities with little real regard for what communities want or need.

West Dunbartonshire Council decision process is deplorable

A current example of this way of operating is exemplified by West Dunbartonshire Council and its attempts to ignore what tenants want. This council has had thoroughly bad inspection reports from Communities Scotland, Audit Scotland and now the new Housing Regulator. Their tenant participation practices have been deplorable according to inspection reports, yet despite this and the recent rejections of housing stock transfers across Scotland, the council have asked the permission of Government Ministers to attempt to transfer half of it`s housing stock to the another landlord. Audit Scotland has on two occasions told this council to review its decision on transfer but this has simply been ignored and the area still faces the prospect of losing huge numbers of public housing. How do they get away with this when the Housing (Scotland) Act 2001 insists that councils have to involve tenants in their planning and decision making on housing services.

Civil Servants overstep their remit

There is also supposed to be a team of civil servants employed to ensure that councils comply with the 2001 Act. This team is known as the Tenant Participation Development Team based in the Government`s housing division at Victoria Quay. The Team were criticised recently in a consultants report for failing to live up to it`s remit of overseeing the regulatory compliance of councils such as West Dunbartonshire. It will be interesting to see the reaction of Government Ministers to the actions of West Dunbartonshire Council.

I mention all of these matters to show the difficulties facing the tenants movement and communities and the barriers we have to overcome to be properly heard.

One more barrier to being heard is the damage being done to the tenants movement in Scotland by the Scottish Government through it`s attacks on our independence. For the past four years the Government in Scotland has been undermining the independence of the tenants movement through the establishment of Regional Networks of tenants groups. These Networks set up through an artificial process instigated by the previous Government and supported by the present Government are little more than puppet groups, run, coached and managed by civil servants of the Tenant Participation Development Team. These civil servants are present at meetings where tenants are deliberating on housing issues and manage the process of tenants’ responses to Government consultations. Civil servants have no place in the tenants’ movement. We don`t need them to organise or manage anything for us. We are quite capable of  managing ourselves.

The process known as National Engagement is a farce and the tenants’ movement needs these civil servants off our backs and out of tenants’ meetings.  We want our independence.

Scotland’s for Council Housing

All of these problems are preventing a genuine debate about the issues which really matter to us as tenants.

We have to have a debate on housing issues and we have to have any debate on our own terms and not one dictated by the Government or it`s civil servants.We need to put our own case.

The tenants’ movement is clear on what it wants from housing policies after having debated the subject for many years without the aid of civil servants. We want to make council housing once again the tenure of choice to stand alongside a first class National Health Service, good local schools and other public services we can be proud of. We need council housing to provide an alternative to the instability and insecurity of the market. The Scottish Government proposals on Lead Developers are not acceptable.

Our alternative manifesto for Scottish Housing is:

• Public investment in good quality publicly owned housing available to all who want it.
• An end to stock transfers of any variety and scale
• Council housing debt write-off
• Direct investment in improving existing council houses
• Mass public housebuilding programmes
• The right for tenants to transfer back to council ownership
• An end to the removal of homes from the public and social sectors through right-to-buy.
• Replacement of schemes that subsidise homeownership (and push up house prices) with investment in the public sector.
• Affordable rents that are calculated so as to leave those on low incomes with enough money to afford a decent quality of life
• Controlled private rents with security of tenure, together with policies that reduce dependence on the private rented sector in favour of council housing.
• An end to demolitions that are not supported by tenants and are not part of a programme to provide better housing for the tenants being displaced.
• Proactive planning policies that ensure that public sector housing is available in good central positions and not driven out to perimeter estates.
• The possibility for tenants who want it – to have genuine involvement in running their homes.
• Recognition of the role of genuinely independent tenant and community organisations

I do not think that I need to reiterate here the folly of the housing policies that have caused the present crisis.

I think it is sufficient to say that a change of direction is necessary.

If reports that all political parties in Scotland support the idea of council housing are true, then the Scottish Tenants Organisation is more than willing to engage in a dialogue on how the idea can be brought about.

I would like to thank the Members of the Scottish Parliament present for listening to our case and would like to think there will be the opportunity for ongoing dialogue on all housing issues in the future.

Please let`s have that debate.

John Carracher

The Scottish Tenants Organisation

The Scottish Tenants Organisation

Suite 633, Claymore House, 145 Kilmarnock Road, Shawlands, Glasgow, Scotland, UK,G41 3JA

Tel: 07 826 834 116 or  01698281488.  Email: agahst2003@hotmail.com

Tenants  Demand Housing Policy Changes from Holyrood

SCOTLAND’S FOR COUNCIL HOUSING

The Scottish Tenants Organisation will make the case for changes to present Government housing policies at a lobby of the Scottish Parliament today, Thursday 12 February 2009.

The lobby organised jointly with the Scottish Trade Union Congress will give tenants the opportunity to meet MSPs, to call for a return to council house building through a mix of direct investment and housing debt write off. The STO also want;

• an end to housing stock transfers
• an  end to unnecessary demolitions
• an end to the right to buy
• an end to the give-away of land to the private sector.

Tenants say that it is time for a change of direction in housing policies in order to meet the housing crisis in Scotland where 40.000 people are registered as homeless  and over 190.000 people are on landlords’ waiting lists. The STO say that as a country we have failed to meet housing needs and that market solutions are clearly not the answer. The present concerns with the housing market crisis overshadow the existing crisis in housing which has affected people for decades and which will continue unless both the UK and Scottish governments stop their privatisation agendas and address real need.

SCOTLAND’S FOR COUNCILHOUSING

John Carracher, STO convener said  ” We have joined forces with the STUC to campaign for a return to decent affordable council housing and will be speaking to MSPs at Holyrood today to present our case. Housing has been in crisis in this country for a long time as successive governments have been too busy pushing the needs of speculators and developers rather than the needs of the communities they represent”.

” Now that economic bubbles are bursting all over the place it is time for a change, away from policies which see people’s homes primarily as ideal investment opportunities, to a return to affordable council housing.  If billions can be found to bail out the spivs and speculators then surely homes can be found for the homeless”.

[Ends]

Editors notes

The STO and the STUC have agreed to campaign jointly on housing issues in an effort to get governments to move away from reliance on market solutions with a return to direct investment for council house building and refurbishment.

Further lobbies are planned with joint meetings being arranged around Scotland to garner support over the next year.  An alternative housing green paper will also be developed.

Contact:

John Carracher

Convener

Scottish Tenants Organisation

[Cribbed for web]

Glasgow MSPs are shocked at an alleged lack of transparancy and openness at Glasgow Housing Association (GHA).

A high powered group have written to the housing regulator after Glasgow Save Our Homes campaigners made the allegation in connection with GHA’s home improvements programme and its handling of lease holder billing.

Johann Lamont MSP, Bob Doris MSP, Bill Kidd MSP, Sandra White MSP, and Bashir Ahmed MSP have raised their concerns over homeowners frustration over the potential for over pricing of work for Over Cladding and Re-roofing and the monitoring of these contracts by GHA Ltd during the period 2005 to 2008.

Now Green Party MSP Patrick Harvie has added his voice to the call while deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has refused to support the campaign.

Many homeowners are critical of the work carried out and remain sceptical about the cost effectiveness of the work as they claim little evidence was gathered to determine what work was actually needed.

Homeowners too remain concerned about the potential for over pricing given that similar work being done to similar properties attracted a wide variation in charges.

Johann Lamont MSP, in a letter to Nicola Sturgeon MSP, said: “I understand that the Housing Regulator has examined the process for securing work; I do believe it is essential for the confidence of homeowners to be restored and that the quality of work done and the pricing regime used are investigated.

“Homeowners are frustrated that bills are not itemised and, as a consequence, confidence cannot be secured.”

Glasgow Homeowners campaigner Sean Clerkin said: “Essentially this amount of backing from MSPs should urge the Scottish Housing Regulator to conduct a financial investigation and address the complaints of homeowners.”

The Scottish Home Regulator has argued against the need for an investigation.

A GHA spokeswoman said: “Last year’s Inspection Report by Communities Scotland on GHA confirmed that we had “followed good practice” in the European-wide tendering process we conducted in 2005 to identify a range of contractors who were capable of delivering our multi-million pound improvement programme at the best possible costs for our customers.

“We agreed an extensive Improvement Plan to address all the recommendations made in the Inspection Report and are currently in the process of introducing a number of initiatives to improve our services to and communications with owners.

“We are also developing our capacity and capability to improve substantially the management of investment and other programmes to optimise benefits from partnering and to ensure contract procurement and management are consistent, clear and open.

“Better on-site management is improving quality of work, flexibility and courtesy for tenants and homeowners who are being consulted in assessing needs, determining priorities and deciding how and when works are conducted and managed.”

We the undersigned call on the Chancellor Alistair Darling to write off Scotland’s housing debt, without housing stock transfers.

From Inside Housing:-

The watchdog keeping guard over housing associations has become much too close to them.

This criticism was not hurled at the Housing Corporation by an angry tenant but came from the mouth of its own deputy chief executive, Peter Marsh. Last week he called for a ‘revolution in tenant involvement’ when the new social housing regulator is set up later this year.

A more tenant-focused approach to regulation was one of the central recommendations from Professor Martin Cave’s review of regulation – published exactly a year ago. Since its release organisations have fallen over themselves to promote the idea that tenants should be given a greater say over how their landlords are policed.

There have been many fine words. But if tenants are to be given a louder and more meaningful voice there were two meetings at last week’s Chartered Institute of Housing conference that were more important than any others.

The events – hosted by the Tenants’ and Residents’ Organisations of England – gave tenants the chance to list their priorities for the regulator, newly named the Tenant Services Authority.

Inside Housing sat in on some of the discussions and found a genuine desire from tenants for a watchdog which will help them hold their landlords to account.

Barbara Rickards, a Harrogate Council tenant, said there was lots of room for improvement from her landlord – and that the regulator should help flag up good practice. ‘There should be a [nationally recognised] tenant quality mark,’ she said. ‘The [housing] organisation should have a quality mark for how much there is [tenant] involvement and training.’

Ms Rickards said she had come along to the event because of the importance of tenants’ rights.

‘I would go to prison for my rights because I feel so strongly about my principles,’ she said. The TSA needed to make sure that landlords paid more than lip service to those rights, she added. While tenants were often trained in how to hold their landlords to account, their views were all too often ignored, Ms Rickards said.

‘I feel like you have been trained like a monkey [only] to be kicked in the teeth. The officers say “don’t give them the policy papers because they won’t understand”.’

Fellow Harrogate tenant John Brookes said landlords should be charged with writing policy papers that tenants could actually understand. He suggested that if they were not written in plain, accessible English then the TSA should be able to step in.

And he said the new scrutineer should also look at the quality of staff charged with improving tenant involvement.

‘The problem is the same with any tenant participation officer – they are paid by the council,’ he said. ‘At the end of the day the council can come in and pull the strings.’

Marianne Hood, a consultant who chaired one of the sessions, said landlords could hamper tenants’ groups’ efforts to hold them to account – because the organisations themselves often paid for training.

‘One good way of making sure that you don’t have a voice is to make sure that you don’t have resources,’ she said.

‘One good way of making sure that you don’t have a voice is to make sure that you don’t have resources’

Kirklees tenant Cora Carter said that housing associations should be required to have more tenants on their boards – and the regulator should take action if they failed to do so.

The TSA should also be responsible for protecting the rights of tenants from all tenures, she added. ‘There is a group of tenants that haven’t been mentioned at all,’ she said. ‘We need a better and fairer deal for private tenants.’

Avnel Dodds, a tenant from Durham, suggested that the new regulator would struggle to have an impact because many politicians were not interested in tenants. ‘They are so removed from people – working down in London,’ she said. ‘They should alllive in a council house and manage on a weekly wage.’

Tenant participation offi cer Nayan Joshi said tenants should also be able to bypass their landlords and report complaints directly to the regulator themselves.

‘I think the TSA should be able to come into a housing organisation if they are not performing as per tenants’ wishes,’ he said.

Mr Joshi added that every provider should also have its own tenant champion and resident involvement champion ‘so the TSA can come in and audit tenant involvement’.

The TSA should also make sure that tenant involvement training was up to scratch, he added.

At the end of the event the tenants also drew up a main wish list that they agreed the regulator should focus on (see box).

When the chiefs setting up the new regulator meet to discuss their plans for the future they could do worse than start with the suggestions put forward by the tenants themselves.