Housing Corporation News Release

Corporation puts people first with launch of new involvement policy

31 May 2007              ref: 55/07

A new policy placing residents at the heart of social housing been launched today (Thursday 31 May) by the Housing Corporation.

'People first - delivering change through involvement' sets out the Housing Corporation's expectations on involvement for housing associations.  It includes:

• the business imperative for involvement;

• the Corporation's objectives, policy and requirements within the Regulatory Code and Guidance;

• the basic building blocks of effective involvement for housing associations;

•  a new requirement for housing associations to have at least one resident board member; and

• a menu of additional approaches to involvement, including the widening of housing association involvement activities to include communities.

The policy replaces the 'Involvement Policy for the Housing Association Sector' which came into effect in April 2004.  The updated policy - following the Elton Report and the report of the National Housing Federation's Tenant Involvement Commission - builds on the commitment in the sector to ensuring that residents are properly involved, and the good practice already underpinning that work.

Housing Corporation Chairman, Peter Dixon, said,  "In his report, John Hills set out a vision for social housing which placed residents at its heart.  This is a vision shared by the Housing Corporation.  We believe that housing associations should do more to involve residents and communities in governance as well as service design and delivery.  Resident involvement should be central to the ethos and integral to the management of all housing associations.

"Through the effective implementation of this policy, we are confident that we will establish a strong foundation upon which new post Cave review regulatory arrangements can be built.  Our expectation is that all housing associations, working in partnership with their residents, will seek to ensure that this policy is effectively implemented, and that within housing associations the voice of their residents is clearly heard."

Ends.

Notes to Editors:
1) For further press information, please contact Naomi Evans on 020 7393 2118.

2) The Housing Corporation's commitment to resident involvement is reflected in the fact that 'Empowering Communities' was one of the two chosen themes for the Housing Corporation's Gold Awards 2007.

In a special ceremony held last week, the winners of this category were:
London & Quadrant with Metropolitan Housing Trust
Poplar HARCA
Willow Park Housing Trust.

For more information, please see the Housing Corporation press release dated 24 May 2007 (Ref: 52/07).

3) In its response to the Cave Review of Social Housing Regulation (22 February 2007), the Corporation called for:

• a re-definition of the core purposes of a social housing provider to reflect wider community needs, interests and concerns;

• all social housing tenants to have the same tenancy rights, service level expectations and access to performance information, regardless of their social landlord;

• a simplified registration system, open to both housing associations and other private sector providers;

• simplified and reduced regulatory requirements, with greater use of self-certification;

• new rights for residents, including increased access to information on landlord performance, resident scrutiny committees, compensation for poor performance, and a new collective right to change housing manager;

• stronger powers of intervention when things go wrong.

The full text of the Housing Corporation's response to the Review of Social Housing Regulation being carried out on behalf of Communities and Local Government by Professor Martin Cave can be found at www.housingcorp.gov.uk.  The terms of reference for the Cave review can be found at: http://www.communities.gov.uk/index.asp?id=1505266

4) The Housing Corporation is the Government agency responsible for investing in new affordable homes and regulating over 1,500 housing associations across England. Its biggest ever investment programme of £3.9 billion for 2006-08 will fund 84,000 homes; 49,000 of these will be for affordable rent, and 35,000 will be for affordable sale through the Government's new Homebuy initiative, helping people to get a foot on the property ladder.

5) The Housing Corporation is working with English Partnerships and Communities and Local Government to establish the proposed new national housing and regeneration agency, Communities England.