`WRONG PEOPLE WITH THE WRONG VALUES`

Too many

fail the empathy

test

More evidence of the ducking and diving in the housing sector came at the recent Housing 21 Conference in Manchester

The chief executive of a sector-wide tenant engagement body  said the housing sector has lost “empathy” during a discussion about the poor conditions of some social housing properties.

  

 Jenny Osbourne(pictured) chief executive of the Tenant Participation Advisory Service (Tpas England), also told the  conference that over the past decade the sector employed “some of the wrong people with the wrong values”.

She was speaking during a panel discussion about the new consumer regulation arm of the Regulator of Social Housing  which is being introduced following the Social Housing White Paper and will see the regulator given more power to intervene on disrepair issues.

All members of the panel said they were not surprised by the recent investigation by ITV News that highlighted the terrible conditions within properties owned by a number of councils and major housing associations.

In response to a question  on the matter, Ms Osbourne said: “That’s what we’ve lost a little bit along the way, some empathy.”

She added: “When a phone rings from a tenant to report a repair, are our staff handling it with empathy by saying ‘how can I help this tenant? I hear what they are saying’. Not ‘how can I get them off the phone? I don’t believe them’. That’s the question we have to ask ourselves.”

Over the summer ITV News has exposed issues such as mould, damp and disrepair within properties owned by local authority n housing associationlandlords  

Kate Dodsworth, who was appointed as the first ever director of consumer regulation at the RSH earlier this year, said that she was not necessarily surprised by the conditions revealed in the ITV investigation, but that she did not think the issues were “universal”.

“There are pockets of poor practice and poor stock, which is leading to those problems,” she said.

   Carlisle Tenants` and Residents` Federation publishes this blog. Information about the Federation is available on 01228 52227

 

 

HOUSING ASSOCIATIONS ARE "NOT ACCOUNTABLE"

Ducking and diving

by the Riverside

It is good  news that at last our  housing associations are being held to account and will begin to properly face up to and address tenants` complaints.

 For far too long these complaints have been deliberately ignored.Housing Associations have have  done nothing but duck and dive.

It is no surprise that the Housing Ombudsman, Richard Blakeway, (pictured) this week had this to say about our associations`  deliberate  scheming  in order to evade their responsibilities:

 “We  see cases where residents have used the courts or the media when they have an unresolved issue with their landlord rather than the complaints process. And cases failing to reach us where we could potentially do something to genuinely assist the resident with their situation.

“ Raising awareness and widening access to the complaints process is therefore essential.”

He added: “The absence of complaints to a landlord or among a particular group may signal access issues, particularly where other indicators suggest there would be complaints”

 

Carlisle Tenants ` and Residents Federation which publishes this blog has had many years` experience of helping tenants and leaseholders who are victims of the ducking and diving antics of the mighty Riverside Housing Association of Liverpool.

 Riverside`s 50,000 tenants and leaseholders have been really up against if they had a  problem involving  their landlord.The federation found that Riverside officials handling the  complaints are very skilled at failing to respond properly and  then if necessary passing the buck.

And the  official Riverside complaints procedure is a series of   endless barriers which take endless time and endless patience to overcome

As the Federation has frequently  asserted: “Riverside is a law to itself”.

Hopefully, the Ombudsman  may have the answer to this appalling catalogue of failure.
of the post-Grenfell Social Housing White Paper.

He is   coming up with ways to improve the accessibility of  the Ombudsman complaints system as part of a new project being launched this week.

Applications are now invited for membership of an Ombudsman expert group that will provide specialist insight and expertise.  The ombudsman is specifically looking for volunteers who have knowledge and experience of accessibility and inclusion issues.

This includes experience of working with those who face barriers accessing services relevant to complaints and in improving accessibility to complaint services in social housing or other sectors.

It is expected that the group will be made up of around roughly six members. The role is unpaid and will be for one year, with the group meeting four times across the year.

Separate to all this,the Housing Ombudsman service is currently undergoing a major overhaul following the publishing of the post-Grenfell Social Housing White  Paper.

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  Carlisle Tenants` and Residents` Federation publishes this blog. Information about the Federation is available on 01228 52227