CARROTS AND STICKS AMONG THE HOUSES

Tenants

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league promotion

 The swelling demand  to give voiceless tenants a say in running their social housing – a demand particularly strong here in Carlisle - could be tied to  how  their housing association performs in new league tables.

And how the association performed would determine how much  government grant it would get.

These are proposals in the government`s Social Housing Green Paper published yesterday by the Home Secretary Sajid Javid(left).

The paper, A New Deal for Social Housing said:“We want to consider the role of financial incentives and penalties to promote the best practice and deter the worst performance."The carrot and stick approach.

The paper also said it would consider giving a proposed social housing regulator a tougher enforcement role over standards ,similar to the education watchdog Ofsted

Two Conservative M.P`s are the latest to join the growing chorus of support for the vioceless tenants. Rachel MacLean, MP for Redditch, and Neil O’Brien, MP for Harborough, argue that social tenants deserve more of a say over their homes and communities

In a recent article in the Times newspaper they also call for “an extensive survey of social tenants and a report each year on how each social landlord is performing”.

The article comes after demands by Carlisle councillors  for tenants to be represented in a planned new governing board for the city`s Riverside Housing Associaton`s 6,000 home owners.

Another article has a similar call. This is for transparency by those  local authorities and housing associations who run social housing.

“Demonstrating good governance can only be achieved through transparency”, writes Andrew Cotton in the social housing magazine Inside Housing.

“Although transparency seems to have been one of the buzzwords in social housing for some time, what is notable at present is the number of times transparency is linked with governance and integrity.”

Mr.  Cotton is a  board member of Lincolnshire Rural Housing Association and is also head of housing and neighbourhood services at Corby Borough Council.

Sadly, the transparency advocated by Mr Cotton has been absent in the affairs of Riverside Housing Association in the way it has run its 6,000 homes in Carlisle.

City councillors have  frequently pointed this out in  efforts to to hammer out a new relationship with Riverside at meetings of the council`s Economic Scrutiny Panel.
 
Carlisle Tenants` and Residents` Federation publishes this blog. Information about the Federation is available on 01228 522277 or 01228 532803