GRENFELL, TICK-BOX THINGS AND THE EXCLUDED

Govt.`s `kit`
to give voice to the voiceless

The  housing minister Mr Kit Malthouse MP has  been  talking about  the struggles of voiceless tenants and  the failures of their  landlords to give them a proper say in how their homes are run.

Mr Malthouse seems very understanding of the plight of these people. He seems determined to do something to help.

Three hundred miles away an identical debate has been going on in Carlisle, but on a local acale

The city council like Mr Malthouse has been trying hard to give 6,000  city tenants a democratic voice in the way their homes are run by their giant landlord, Riverside Housing Association of Liverpool. Riverside bought the 6,000 former council houses 16 years ago.

Kit Malthouse... issues in Whitehall and  Carlisle

Mr Mr.Malthouse`s talk is in an interview he gave in a current issue of the social housing journal, Inside Housing. The Carlisle council debate has been reported in previous posts on this blog, Community Voice Carlisle

Not surprisingly, the same issues emerged in both debates: out-of touch landlords and frustrated tenants who are  unable to get their voices heard in a jungle of landlord-run tenant organisations. These organisations apparently were designed to create bafflement upon bafflement for the tenants.

This is what Mr Malthouse said:

“It became clear after the awful Grenfell tragedy that quite a lot of people in social housing didn’t feel that they were being listened to.

 “That either they were screaming into the void and not being responded to or that politicians over the last couple of decades have stopped caring.”

Mr Malthouse  sees a similarity with those MP`s  who have constiuents who may not be listened to.

He said: “Most MP`s try and maintain a constant conversation with their constituents. You do that through letters and emails and surgeries and all the rest of it. It’s very important that you are responsive to and sensitive to your constituency.

“But collectively, maybe government itself had stopped doing that with  a particular section of the community – a huge section with four point something million homes – namely social housing tenants. These tenants felt  that they were not being listened to  and now, hopefully, we are correcting that.”

Mr Malthouse was asked what the plan was for those landlords who are “barely complying with the [English regulator’s] tenant involvement and empowerment standard”.

Mr.Malthouse said that a theme that has emerged from some of his meetings with tenants so far is a feeling that “they were being excluded at the highest level”.

 “They felt as if particular boards were hiving them off into sub-committees”, or that tenant participation was an “afterthought, tick-the-box thing”.

“It’s very important that you are responsive to and sensitive to your constituency whether that is a parliamentary constituency or is a section of the community.

“There is however, a `democratic challenge` for social landlords to address about how tenants are selected to sit on boards or senior governance positions.

“A common complaint from some residents is that tenant positions on boards and committees are often unelected – meaning that even when there are resident board members, many other tenants can be left feeling disenfranchised and powerless”.

Mr Malthouse was asked about the possibility of a national organisation for tenants- a tenants` voice.The governments`s recent green paper acknowledged that a number of tenant and resident organisations were keen on an independent platform for tenants.

Mr Malthouse said: “What the government wants from a tenants’ voice is “something that is raw and real” .

“Real time” feedback on issues was important,. The government was open to ideas about whether there should be a national or regional structure or whether an annual conference – along the lines of the annual party conferences – might work,

He said: “I don’t know – I’m open to ideas”.

Those ideas for Kit Malthouse may provide a "kit" to give voice to the voiceless.

 Carlisle Tenants` and Residents` Federation publishes this blog. Information about the Federation is available on 01228 522277 or 01228 532803

A JUNGLE OF RIVERSIDE ORGANISATIONS AND A MAZE OF PROCEDURES

Making Brexit look like

a piece of cake

Theresa May has thrilled local councils with her promise to fix the broken housing market with many thousands of new council houses. But for Carlisle City Council there is  a second  broken housing market. And that needs to be fixed first.

How this is being fixed is a complicated tortuous tale, full of twist and turns. Yes, the Brexit negotiations are also complicated and tortuous- but you ain`t seen nothin` yet.! Read on…  

Labour-run Carlisle is as thrilled as all the other councils to get much needed extra borrowing powers to build all the houses promised by the Prime Minister at the Tory party conference.

The city``s second broken housing market is the long standing failure of Carlisle`s biggest landlord- the giant Riverside Housing Association of Liverpool - to give a proper democratic voice to its 6,000 tenants and leaseholders.

Councillors have been working for many months to help these voiceless people with persistent and increasingly-loud calls for tenants to be involved in a new planned Riverside group which is being formed  to work with the  council.

This  group is to be called the Carlisle Liaison Group. It replaces the flawed and secretive  Carlisle Divisional Board which lasted  for many years but never appeared to have achieved anything . The board was was recently abandoned by Riverside.

There has also been back-up support from Whitehall for  the voiceless tenants.This support is in the measures outlined in the governments`s recent social housing green paper.

This week the new Carlisle Liaison Group is again to be discussed  by the council`s Economic Growth Scrutiny Panel. 

The panel will hear of the tortuous negotiations for the arrangements for  the new group that would give tenants a say its deliberations.

The negotiations were full of twists and turns and were excessively complex after the council agreed to ask Riverside for what it callled  “the inclusion of a mechanism for tenant representation” in the arrangements.

SARAH PATON third from the left, with other housing  executives

The council got this  reply  from Ms Sarah Paton , Riverside`s northern director:

“This inclusion can be an agenda item at the meeting but I don’t think this agreement is about setting out how we’ll involve residents which will vary over time. 

“Tenant and resident consultation,

participation and involvement means we

will discuss how we’re involving residents as

one of the agenda items.

“The Council’s

Leader also said  that:

`Officers had sought to develop a

replacement for the Divisional Board which

would afford Members the opportunity of

raising concerns on behalf of residents …

Riverside had processes for tenant

engagement which would operate in

addition to the proposed Carlisle Liaison

Group.”

The council wasn`t clear about this reply. So it asked Ms Paton for further clarification.

Ms Paton replied:

“Riverside’s involved customers will have the opportunity to raise agenda items”

The council again wasn`t clear.

So it  went back to Ms Paton She provided the following text to explain what is meant by “involved customers”, and the mechanisms for engagement between Riverside and its customers:-

 · “All Riverside customers who have a contract with us i.e. a tenancy

agreement, lease or licence, are members of our Customer Voice. This has a

national executive who are elected and there is also a national scrutiny panel

which reports to the executive. Customers can follow the Customer Voice

Exec on Facebook.

“· All customers can join our online Customer Panel and take part in

consultations.

“· We also have informal Customer Voice groups locally and there is currently

one in Carlisle.”

A spokesman  for Carlisle Tenamts` and Residents` Federation which publishes this blog makes this comment:

 “Carlisle City Council was not asking Riverside for very much. It wanted  one or two Riverside tenants to sit alongside councillors on the planned liaison group. Surely, not much to ask. 

" Riverside`s response to the council is baffling. It seems to be  nothing more than a jungle of  Riverside organisations… Customer Voice, Customer Voice National Executive, Customer Panel, National Scrutiny Panel … and an equally a baffling maze of procedures.

“Brexit in comparison is a piece of cake”.

 Carlisle Tenants` and Residents` Federation publishes this blog. Information about the Federation is available on 01228 522277 or 01228 532803