Tenant Led Self Regulation
The Tenant Services Authority (TSA) was set up as a result of the Housing and Regeneration Act 2008 and became operational on the 1st December 2008 as the new independent regulator charged with promoting and championing the interests of social housing tenants in England.
The TSA are responsible for regulating housing associations and the housing activities of local authorities who own their stock, including ALMOs. This change of regulation for local authorities and ALMOs will come effect in April 2010. As a result of this the TSA is required to develop a new regulatory framework.
The TSA want to encourage landlords and tenants to work together to improve the levels of service delivered. The TSA role would be, in part, to rely on the things agreed and delivered as a result. The TSA call this co-regulation and this is the TSA's preferred approach to regulation. Co-regulation is a balance between:
- Direct regulation - where national standards are developed and evaluation of performance is assessed directly by the regulator
- Self regulation - where local standards are developed with tenants by landlords themselves, led by their boards and performance is verified independently within a framework approved by the regulator.
This balance will enable the standards framework to be more tailored to local priorities.
Salix Homes is at the forefront of resident led self-regulation and has an established mechanism that allows customers the opportunity to review, influence and direct the organisation at a strategic level either by being part of the Customer Senate, Service Specific Panel or being a member of the Board.
