黑洞社区

The government鈥檚 new social housing regulator wants to give tenants the power to direct spending on building works such as maintenance, refurbishment and landscaping.

The changes proposed by the Tenant Services Authority (TSA) could mean investment is directed away from Decent Homes work if tenants decide other work is more urgent.

Peter Marsh, chief executive of the TSA (pictured), said: 鈥淭enants may say, 鈥榳e think that Decent Homes is a good idea, but we鈥檇 rather have more money spent on the external landscaping鈥�. If a community says it wants to prioritise the use of resources in a different way, the current star system doesn鈥檛 allow that.

鈥淎t the moment tenants ask, 鈥榳hy can鈥檛 we have this?鈥� and the provider says, 鈥榖ecause the regulator says so鈥�. That鈥檚 an adult-child relationship.鈥�

The changes are part of a programme of reform instigated by Marsh when the regulator was created in December.

At the moment the TSA is sifting through about 80,000 questionnaires from social housing residents stating what they wanted from services. These were collected as part of its 鈥渘ational conversation鈥� which closed for submissions on Monday.

Marsh said that in the longer-term, registered social landlords would be expected to find out and communicate what tenants thought was important.

Richard Capie, policy director, at the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH), welcomed the move, but cautioned that giving tenants a voice could create regional tensions. He said: 鈥淭he interface between what tenants want to see and funding streams and targets 鈥� that鈥檚 the bit that needs to be worked through.鈥�

The results of the TSA鈥檚 consultation will be published in the spring.