The number of tenants on housing association boards should more than treble, the Housing Corporation told a committee of MPs this week
Corporation chairman Baroness Dean said a third of housing association board members should be tenants.

There are currently 3,000 housing association tenant board members out of a total of 30,000 board members in all.

Dean said the figure should be nearer 10,000 to match the level of representation on recent stock transfers from local authorities.

She said: "We don't have a magic number, but I would like to see it nearer 10,000."

Dean was appearing before the Public Administration select committee as part of its inquiry into the accountability of quangos (Housing Today, issue 129).

She hoped more tenants would be attracted to join boards through the corporation's plans to allow loss of earnings payments to board members, and moves to relax rules preventing RSLs housing board members' relatives (Housing Today, issue 130).

She added: "We are taking this very seriously indeed."

Dean was responding to Peter Bradley MP who said he was "concerned" that the current level of tenant representation was so low.

He said: "In my experience the "great and the good" are pretty remote from people in housing need."

Dean also disagreed with MP Margaret Moran who claimed that the corporation's power over associations was diminishing as its funding decreased.

Dean said: "There's a difference between influence and authority."

She pointed out that the corporation had no power to set salaries or pension levels, but she claimed that the sector "took notice" when the corporation spoke out on these issues (Housing Today issue 94).

Source

Housing Today