Strategy guidance missing

They argue that the DTLR’s failure to issue guidance on the strategies signals a cooling of interest, despite last year’s Green paper demand that all councils should prepare them.

The decision not to issue guidance has been heavily criticised as “sending out the signal these strategies are not important”.

Tenant Participation Advisory Service chief executive Phil Morgan said: “The difficulty with not providing guidance for something new is that it sends out a signal that it is not important and that nobody has really thought about how to do it.

“The lack of empowerment through the continued absence of this guidance is a reflection on the lack of attractiveness of social housing.”

The green paper said councils should have a strategic role in housing, whether or not they own homes.

Independent tenants’ consultant Marianne Hood said the guidance is “urgently needed”. “My concern is that events are overtaking us,” she said.

“We need to do something local authorities can focus their attention on and involve residents in. Some local authorities, from the way they are proceeding, have decided not to prepare or implement strategies at all.”

A DTLR spokeswoman told Housing Today there were no plans for guidance, and that tenant empowerment was being realised through other avenues.

Aaron Cahill, policy officer at the National Housing Federation, said that there was ample guidance in the green paper, the National Strategy for Neighbourhood Renewal and the urban and rural white papers.

“Whether specific guidance from the DTLR is really going to help people a huge amount on the ground remains to be seen,” he said. “The role for residents in assisting with the production of housing strategies is important, but there shouldn’t be a presumption that DTLR guidance on housing strategy content and process is going to make the difference that people might want.”

Gwyneth Taylor, acting head of housing at the Local Government Association, said: “The Housing Investment Programme lays out what should be included in the strategies and there is a point when you can’t keep producing any more guidance.

“What the DTLR are looking into, which from our perspective is more important, is guidance on producing business plans for the role of housing within a broader community planning process.”