Councils may be breaking the law over their tenant consultation arrangements, following a landmark ruling by the ombudsman
In a case which could confuse the whole issue of how authorities should consult, local government ombudsman Patricia Thomas has ruled that North Tyneside council failed to fulfil its legal duty on changes it made to secure tenancies to make them more effective against anti-social behaviour.

Thomas said the council was also guilty of maladministration causing injustice because it had no published tenant consultation strategy.

The ruling centred on the council's decision to invite tenants of its 21,500 homes to local offices to see the proposals on display, rather than send each tenant a formal notice specifying the changes.

Phil Morgan, chief executive of the Tenant Participation Advisory Service, said the ruling would have "a fundamental impact in ensuring that tenant consultation is treated appropriately".

North Tyneside head of housing management Derek Adcock said the council would accept the findings but the situation did nothing to make the process of consultation more innovative and user friendly - a prime aim of the forthcoming "tenant compact".

He said: "It would be a shame if it meant that to be safe rather than sorry every tenant got reams of paper through the front door. Dumping correspondence on tenants is not consultation in my book and is also very costly."

He claimed many other authorities would be in the same boat as North Tyneside, and would be worried about the implications.

The ombudsman based her findings on the Housing Act 1985, which states that there must be consultation with individual tenants where there are proposals to vary the terms and conditions of secure tenancies. Councils must also publish details of their consultation arrangements.

In a letter to former housing minister Hilary Armstrong this week, the tenants' activist who made the complaint, Terry Harding, called for the resignation of councillors and officers "who have colluded in this debacle".

He told Housing Today he had spent £2,000 and had threatened to go to the European Court if the ombudsman did not take up the complaint. He wrote to Armstrong, his local MP Stephen Byers, the Cabinet Office, the Speaker of the House of Commons and even the Prime Minister.

The DETR said the case was entirely between the complainant and his local authority.

Source

Housing Today