Associations told: you’re not listening to tenants
By Keith Cooper
Published: 04 January 2007
Housing associations have come under attack from the London mayor and a newly elected member of an influential parliamentary committee for supposedly failing to listen to tenants.
Mayor Ken Livingstone has branded some associations’ approach to tenant involvement as abysmal and promised to take action when he gains control over the grant they rely on to build affordable homes.
His pledge comes as Communities and Local Government select committee member Emily Thornberry launched a private member’s bill aimed at making housing associations more democratic.
The Labour MP for Islington South & Finsbury told Inside Housing the bill had already gained widespread cross-party support from MPs.
MPs and local government councillors had become ‘incredibly frustrated’ when dealing with tenants’ complaints about housing association landlords, she added.
‘Most MPs just feel that tenants’ opinions are not being collected. I have estates in my constituency where tenants are pulling their hair out. Some associations are much better than others. Some are very good in
90 per cent of the work they do but in the other 10 per cent they are dreadful.’
Ms Thornberry said she was keen on creating a ‘nuclear button’ that would force associations to hand control of estates to rival landlords if they failed to listen to tenants. ‘That would mean the body [of tenants] would be listened to,’ she added.
Although private members’ bills rarely become law, Ms Thornberry said she was keen to start a debate on how to improve housing association tenants’ influence.
Mr Livingstone told a press briefing that housing associations ‘aren’t that democratic’, adding that some were ‘abysmal’.
He would examine how he could use the new powers he is due to receive through the Greater London Authority Bill to push higher levels of tenant consultation in housing associations, he added.
John Cross, chief executive of BPHA and chair of the National Housing Federation, said tenants were very important to housing associations because their rents made up the bulk of their income.
Punishing housing associations was, however, not the right way to force housing associations into listening to tenants. ‘The best way of doing that isn’t to have a stick,’ he added.
The federation set up a commission last year, headed by National Consumer Council chief executive Ed Mayo, to examine how tenants could become more involved in running housing associations.
By Keith Cooper
Published: 04 January 2007
Housing associations have come under attack from the London mayor and a newly elected member of an influential parliamentary committee for supposedly failing to listen to tenants.
Mayor Ken Livingstone has branded some associations’ approach to tenant involvement as abysmal and promised to take action when he gains control over the grant they rely on to build affordable homes.
His pledge comes as Communities and Local Government select committee member Emily Thornberry launched a private member’s bill aimed at making housing associations more democratic.
The Labour MP for Islington South & Finsbury told Inside Housing the bill had already gained widespread cross-party support from MPs.
MPs and local government councillors had become ‘incredibly frustrated’ when dealing with tenants’ complaints about housing association landlords, she added.
‘Most MPs just feel that tenants’ opinions are not being collected. I have estates in my constituency where tenants are pulling their hair out. Some associations are much better than others. Some are very good in
90 per cent of the work they do but in the other 10 per cent they are dreadful.’
Ms Thornberry said she was keen on creating a ‘nuclear button’ that would force associations to hand control of estates to rival landlords if they failed to listen to tenants. ‘That would mean the body [of tenants] would be listened to,’ she added.
Although private members’ bills rarely become law, Ms Thornberry said she was keen to start a debate on how to improve housing association tenants’ influence.
Mr Livingstone told a press briefing that housing associations ‘aren’t that democratic’, adding that some were ‘abysmal’.
He would examine how he could use the new powers he is due to receive through the Greater London Authority Bill to push higher levels of tenant consultation in housing associations, he added.
John Cross, chief executive of BPHA and chair of the National Housing Federation, said tenants were very important to housing associations because their rents made up the bulk of their income.
Punishing housing associations was, however, not the right way to force housing associations into listening to tenants. ‘The best way of doing that isn’t to have a stick,’ he added.
The federation set up a commission last year, headed by National Consumer Council chief executive Ed Mayo, to examine how tenants could become more involved in running housing associations.
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