They have written to housing minister Lord Falconer alleging that Housing Corporation officers have positively discouraged RSLs from offering their tenants a contractual right to manage.
They appealed to Falconer to change the right to manage law to secure tenants’ right of community control following transfer.
Last month a TMO in St Helens, Merseyside, accused the corporation of threatening to refuse registration to their transfer landlord if it agreed to an arbitration contract (Housing Today, 31 January).
This week’s letter calls on the government to refuse transfers unless tenants’ rights are fully protected.
And it says housing associations should develop a framework within which transfer landlords would be required to offer a contractual right to manage as a condition of registration.
“It is in the tenants’ interests that RSLs should operate with viable long-term business plans,” the letter reads.
“There need be no contradiction between sound financial planning and a responsive framework for community empowerment.”
National Housing Federation deputy chief executive James Tickell (pictured) said while tenant management should be implemented as good practice, a change in the law could not be enforced.
“Stock transfers require a balance between the interests of tenants and lenders to achieve tenants’ long-term objectives,” he explained. “If new associations’ independence is constrained by a new statutory right, many transfer deals could no longer be viable.”
A spokeswoman denied that the corporation discouraged TMOs. It expected residents and associations to work towards the outcomes in its regulatory code “in partnership”, she said.
Source
Housing Today
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