MANAGERS TO GO BACK TO COLLEGE

 

Gove`s new law to tame rogue housing

Congratulations to Housing Minister Michael Gove (pictured) for introducing a new law that will require managers and executives employed by social landlords to obtain professional qualifications. This is the biggest reform to professional standards in the social  housing sector’s history.

 The changes will mean about 25,000 housing staff going back to college, and will change the way staff are trained and recruited in the social housing sector.

Carlisle Tenants` and Residents` Federation which publishes this blog has campaigned for nearly a quarter  of a century to get better professional standards in social housing,

particularly the Liverpool based giant organisation, Riverside Housing Association.

Better standards seemed to be the last thing Riverside has  sought to achieve over the years.  Complaints about these standards by tenants and by the federation achieved nothing because Riverside  had no care about such things. . Riverside is accountable only to itself

The  planned  law is primarily a response to the Grenfell Tower fire in 2017 and concerns that the building was not adequately managed by its landlord, the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea , and its management body, the Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation .. 

But then came the inquest into the death of two-year-old Awaab Ishak in a housing association home in Rochdale. The verdict  was that his death was caused by serious damp and mould in his home which went unaddressed for two years.

The verdict led to a significant hardening of the rhetoric from Michael Gove, the housing secretary towards rogue housing in the sector. 

This, of course, follows two years of revelations about poor repairs performance, and an increasingly active Housing Ombudsman publicising the failures it investigates.

  Community Voice Carlisle is the blog of Carlisle Tenants` and Residents`Federation. Information about the Federation is available on 01228 52