Tenant and Resident Management Organisations: Regulation

14. What steps his Department is taking to improve the regulation of tenant and resident management organisations.

Minister, you’re very busy!

The Government remain committed to the principle of tenants and leaseholders taking over certain management functions from their landlords, and following a review of arrangements for the oversight of tenant management organisations, we intend to take steps to make it easier to do so. Statutory guidance sets out a process for intervening in cases of mismanagement, but as part of our reform agenda, we will strengthen governance and oversight, including by providing stronger safeguards in cases in which tenant safety is at risk.

Residents on the Loughborough estate in my constituency have suffered years of appalling service from their resident management organisation, the Loughborough Estate Management Board. It has a failing repair service; dangerous chemicals were being stored in the community centre; there were allegations of threats and harassment; and more than £350,000 of its funding was spent on overseas trips and gifts. Eighteen months ago, residents voted overwhelmingly in favour of not renewing the board’s mandate, yet it is still operating, and there appears to be no straightforward mechanism that the local council can use to close down this failing organisation. Will the Minister work with me to bring this scandalous situation to an end, and to ensure that the Loughborough estate’s residents receive the housing services that they pay for and deserve?

I thank my hon. Friend for bringing this alarming case to my attention. We are clear that as we look to make it easier to establish TMOs—we want to do so; there are some very good ones out there—we must strengthen governance and accountability. I assure her that as part of that effort, the Secretary of State and I will be giving specific consideration to how extreme cases of mismanagement might be brought to an end, as a mechanism of last resort.

I call the shadow Minister.

I commend the hon. Member for Dulwich and West Norwood (Helen Hayes) for raising this issue, which is part of a wider issue that many hon. Members will have heard about from constituents. Through legislation passed by the Conservative Government, with Labour Members’ support, and the legislation that is being consulted on, what concrete steps do the Government intend to take to prevent rip-off fees, and unfair arrangements that shuffle costs on to private tenants—or council tax payers, in the case of social housing tenants—so that people can have confidence that the homes that they need will be provided, and will be fit for the future?

I thank the shadow Minister for that reasonable and apt question. We do need confidence in the system. Many tenant management organisations provide excellent resident-led housing services, but it is right that councils can intervene if things go wrong. Powers to intervene in cases of serious failings are included in the management agreement between councils and TMOs, but as I said in response to my hon. Friend the Member for Dulwich and West Norwood (Helen Hayes), we are reviewing where we can go further on governance and accountability to ensure that the right safeguards are in place.