Industry news


Housing regulator makes limited changes to tenant consultation standard


with the majority being in favour of the proposed changes. However, it is felt that if the consultation had coincided with the fire at Grenfell Tower or its aftermath, then the response rate would have been greater in number and more demanding in giving all tenants (and leaseholders) a louder and more influential voice.


REQUIREMENT The new standard requires social housing providers, including HAs, councils and ALMOs to consult with tenants if they are considering changing their landlord or changing the management arrangements of their homes. Under the old standard social housing


landlords needed to obtain the HCA’s consent before disposing of properties, with the regulator checking that an adequate tenant consultation had been carried out. The consent requirement ceased in April as part of the Government’s deregulatory package to get HAs’ loans off the public sector balance sheet. In response, the regulator decided the Tenant


Involvement and Empowerment Standard needed to be made “more explicit and strengthened” to ensure it was fully understood by housing providers.


T


he social housing regulator has amended its Tenant Involvement and Empowerment Standard but doubts persist over whether


it gives all tenants a meaningful voice. With many people calling for the Homes and


Communities Agency to take more notice of tenants’ views or complaints and for it to liaise more effectively with the Housing Ombudsman, fresh concerns have been raised in the wake of the Grenfell Tower tragedy. This could represent a missed opportunity. Residents of the tower block complained that


their concerns over a number of health and safety matters, mainly associated with the block’s refurbishment, were either ignored altogether or only given scant attention by both the tower block’s owners, Kensington & Chelsea Council and the tenant management organisation it employed to manage the block on its behalf. While both the new and old versions of the


standard are meant to apply to all social housing landlords, their impact on councils is largely


advisory and only housing associations needed to get the HCA’s consent for property disposals. The Grenfell Tower residents have said they literally had no one else to complain to after the council had made decisions on their specific concerns.


REMIT The HCA published the updated standard in July (a month after the Grenfell fire) following a detailed consultation process in the late Spring and early Summer. But leaseholders and prospective tenants (such as those on a waiting list for social housing) are among the groups whose concerns lie outside the remit of the HCA’s tenant consultation standard. The consultation exercise followed fast on the


heels of the deregulatory measures for housing associations in April. This ended the need for HAs to seek the regulator’s consent for asset disposals, such as selling properties or raising mortgages. Some 156 responses were made to the


consultation from individuals and organisations,


LSE students act over ‘mouldy and mice-infested flats’


Postgraduates at one of Britain’s leading universities have criticised their accommodation, claiming it caused many of them to fall ill and that constructive work disrupted their exams. Students living in halls of residence at Sidney


Webb House, near London Bridge station in central London, said the property suffered from widespread black mould, mice infestations and


periods without ventilation. They claimed this resulted in a “health crises, distraction and distress”. The students have threatened to sue LSE for


what they claim is a “breach of tenancy contract”. They also cited delays in repairs to basic utilities, including heating and hot water, while students, who lived in the halls between September 2016


APPROPRIATE The new wording is: “Where registered providers are proposing a change in landlord for one or more of their tenants or a significant change in their management arrangements, they shall consult with affected tenants in a fair, timely, appropriate and effective manner. “Registered providers shall set out the proposals


clearly and in an appropriate amount of detail and shall set out any actual or potential advantages and disadvantages (including costs) to tenants in the immediate and longer term. “Registered providers must be able to


demonstrate to affected tenants how they have taken the outcome of the consultation into account when reaching a decision.” The HCA has acknowledged the limited effect


of the change in the following statement, buried on the penultimate page of its 24 page decision statement – ‘The change is only that the regulator is now making explicit within the Standard the required quality of consultation that has always been required by the regulator.’


and June 2017, also complained of disruptive construction work, which took place over a seven- week period, and affected students’ ability to prepare for their exams. The accommodation is provided by specialist


landlord, Unite Students, who acquired it in the previous year. They said it “does not accept” the accommodation had been the direct cause of any illness. A spokesman for the LSE said the property was due to be refurbished over the summer and it was aware of a number of complaints about the accommodation during the academic year. They said each issue was being investigated.


www.housingmmonline.co.uk | HMM September 2017 | 7


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