Progress on tenant participation?

Research from Communities Scotland ( Report) 98.

Evaluating Scottish social landlords` progress on tenant participation.

4. Conclusions and recommendations

4.1 Impact of the Act

4.1.1 Progress and achievements

The Housing ( Scotland ) Act 2001 placed significant emphasis on ensuring that landlords had formal procedures in place for tenant participation. Our evaluation shows that most landlords have responded well to this. Landlords and RTOs agree that the Act has resulted in progress being made with tenant participation and has led to a more focused and formalised approach – with a written strategy, dedicated resources and formal stuctures for participation.

Our case studies found that most landlords are working to involve tenants in decisions. But, the way in which landlords are encouraging participation is very varied. And, landlords are still at very different stages of development five years on from the commencement of the Act.

National Engagement Battle

National Engagement Battle ( March 08 )

Tenants groups across South Lanarkshire have reacted with anger to letters from Communities Scotland informing them that `agreements` had been made to organise a regional tenants network entitled, “ Region 8” to represent all the registered tenant organisations there.

Tenants have been asked to put their names forward as representatives on a committee conjoined with North Lanarkshire and East Dunbartonshire with four places available per area. If more than four reply then elections will be held.

Landlord’s break-up under threat over contract breaches

The Scottish Government could be summoned to appear before the European Court of Justice in a move which also threatens the break-up of the country’s biggest social landlord.

After two years of investigations, the European Commission has now issued a “letter of formal notice” to the government stating that contracts awarded to dozens of tenant-led housing organisations in Glasgow to manage their properties appear to have breached public procurement laws – despite the previous executive passing legislation in 2005 to prevent this.

Letter To Stewart Maxwell

Mr. Stewart Maxwell
Minister for Communities & Sport
Scottish Government
Edinburgh
EH1 3DG

15/01/08

Dear Mr. Maxwell,

Effective tenant participation both at a local and national level is a cornerstone policy for the Scottish Tenants Organisation (STO). We welcome this opportunity today to enter into dialogue with the Minister with a view to taking tenant participation at a national level forward. We would like to see this dialogue develop further in the future. We consider that as a national constituted tenants’ organisation that we must be involved, with others, in discussions about national housing policy.

We consider “Partners in Participation – A National Strategy for Tenant Participation” as a working document which contains the essential elements for effective tenant participation. We believe that the Tenant Participation Working Group should be reconvened to look in depth at a number of issues including, the “Code of Practice on Tenant Participation at a National Level” and a full review of the tenant participation sections of the Housing (Scotland) Act 2001. Investigate setting up an independent Tenant tribunal to arbitrate in cases of dispute between tenant and landlord in relation to tenant Participation activities.

Further, we believe that the Tenant Participation Working Group should carry out a review of tenant participation practice across Scotland identifying good practice and underdeveloped practice. The reasons for this under developed practice should be noted and recommendations for improvements made.

The STO recognises that there are a number of policy issues in which it would like to engage in discussion with the Scottish Government and would hope to do so in the future for example the “Local Housing Needs and Affordability Model for Scotland”.

However as one of our key issues is “Housing Debt Write Off” the STO would welcome the opportunity to co-operate with the Scottish Government in its approaches to the UK Treasury requesting debt write off in other circumstances other than housing stock transfer.

The STO has welcomed the very useful and positive dialogue that has already been started with the Scottish Government from the TIS/TPAS and TIGHRA conferences on Firm Foundations – The Future of Housing in Scotland. In our opinion this is something that we would like to build on in the future.

Thank you for your consideration on the above and we look forward to hearing from you.

Yours sincerely,

Secretary
Scottish Tenants Organisation

S.T.O. National Housing Debate

Notes on meeting with Stewart Maxwell, Minster for Communities,

Ann Cook, Communities Scotland Tenant Participation and Clare Morley, Social Housing Division

held at the Scottish Parliament, 16 January 2008 and attended by John Carracher and John Foster for the STO

Mr Maxwell began the meeting by apologising for any confusion in the past which had prevented meetings with the STO taking place and welcoming the opportunity for an exchange of opinions. The Scottish government was seeking to move housing up the agenda and increase the rate of house building from 24,000 to 35,000 over the next few years. The consultation document Firm Foundations set out these objectives and he looked forward to responses.

For the STO John Carracher welcomed the government’s steps to open up debate on housing. The main purpose of the meeting was to request a continuing dialogue between the STO and the government.

Chair’s comments – March 08

Chair’s comments

As part of its ongoing campaign on housing issues the Scottish Tenants Organisation has written to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Alistair Darling asking him to write off all of Scotland`s council housing debt ( £2.2Billion ).

‘Drastic action needed’ over housing crisis [Dundee]

[From the Evening Telegraph] Dundee’s housing crisis is real and will only get worse unless drastic action is taken now to halt further demolition of council houses and increase the supply of affordable homes (writes Bruce Robbins).

That was the consensus that emerged from a public meeting on the subject in a Ward Road church.

Academics, housing professionals, tenants and two of the city’s SNP councillors made it clear that, from their point of view, housing difficulties are greater now than at any time for decades.

And, they said, ongoing demolition of council stock and the global credit crunch, which is making it harder for first time house buyers to secure a property, will only increase the pressures already apparent in the rented sector.

The meeting was called in response to concern raised in the Evening Telegraph that the city is facing a housing crisis following the publication of figures by the SNP group which showed there are almost 10,000 people on the waiting list.

Scottish tenants want Chancellor to write off debt

[Herald Article] The Scottish Tenants’ Organisation is demanding a meeting with the Chancellor, Alistair Darling to discuss writing-off local authorities’ £2.2bn historic housing debt.

The organisation cites a report from Audit Scotland which showed that this would be neutral in terms of the public purse. Debt write-off was previously dependent on council tenants agreeing to vote for transfer to new landlords.

But one of the cities to suffer most from not going down the stock transfer route is Edinburgh and with Mr Darling an MP for the city the STO hopes to impress on him their case.

John Carracher, convener of the organisation said: “Writing off this debt would release huge amounts of money to allow councils to invest in stock thereby solving virtually all our council housing investment problems in one act.”

He said “stock transfers amount to coercion which is being pursued for purely ideological reasons and that a change of direction needs to take place.

“We believe there are no good financial reasons for denying debt write-off and a change of direction could take place now with no need for legislation, so what are we waiting for?”

The STO cites the report by Audit Scotland which said: “This form of debt repayment is not in itself a cost to government in cash terms. The original borrowing – and the investment it funded – was a cost to government. But subsequent debt interest and repayments are transactions entirely within the public sector, so there is no net effect.”

Mr Carracher said: “Improvements to people’s homes and a change of landlord are two quite separate issues and should be treated as such. Housing stock transfers are an illogical approach to public housing provision and the approach must change.”

He said that at a recent meeting with the Scottish housing minister the STO argument had been accepted and he hoped Holyrood would back them in their fight with the Treasury.

Answer Time

A programme looking at some of the answers behind housing questions.

Firm Foundations? A response to the Scottish Government’s Housing Green Paper

An Academic response to ‘Firm Foundations’  Government consultation paper on housing.

We want to begin by welcoming some bold and positive changes – most notably the recognition of the important role played by social housing 1 , and the ending of the right to buy for new social rented homes. We also acknowledge the difficulties of making radical change in the current political climate – as exemplified by the negative grilling that characterised the Newsnight Scotland interview following the announcement of the end of the right-to-buy, and the scramble by Labour and the Conservatives to claim credit for promoting regressive inheritance taxes. Perhaps partly as a result of this, the Green Paper seems overwhelmingly anxious not to alienate existing property interests and thus often to be trying to reconcile the irreconcilable.