By Carl Davis The ongoing struggle for reasonable adjustments and the normalisation of adversarial landlord-tenant relations. Securing reasonable adjustments remains an uphill battle for disabled tenants, largely due to landlords’ entrenched resistance. According to the Housing Ombudsman’s Attitudes, Respect, and Rights report, 68% of tenants consulted reported that their landlords had refused to provide reasonable… Continue reading The Ongoing Struggle for Reasonable Adjustments
By Francesco Guerrieri Housing maintenance issues and service charge disputes are among the most challenging aspects of being a resident in the UK today. Many leaseholders, council tenants, and housing association residents face similar frustrations: steadily increasing service charges with little transparency about how funds are being spent; maintenance requests that go unanswered for months;… Continue reading How We Took Control of our Building: A Resident’s Journey to Acquire the Right to Manage
Or: The passive optionalisation of the Equality Act 2010 and the need for proactive Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) compliance and enforcement. By Carl Davis The passive ‘optionalisation’ of the Equality Act 2010 within social housing is a subtle but dangerous form of regulatory failure. It occurs where laws designed to protect disabled residents are… Continue reading The Equality Act: Option or Obligation?
SHAC has heard many accounts of victimising by landlords when things go wrong. Typically, this arises when tenants and residents report leaks, damp and mould in their homes and are told that their own 'lifestyle choices' lie at fault, and that action may be taken against them for failing to properly maintain their homes. On… Continue reading Clarion’s Victimisation Culture
By Alicia Mortlock, independent social rights campaigner I confess that I hate the term ‘silo’ with a passion. However, I’m aware of the power of insider jargon. I use it here in the same way I used it two weeks ago at a webinar to get the attention of people who use words like ‘silo’… Continue reading Don’t Fence Us In (The True Cost of Siloing Social Housing Tenants and Residents)
In the middle of January, an extraordinary meeting was held between tenants and residents of Hyde from the Stockwell Towers estate, the Stockwell MP who helped facilitate the meeting Bell Ribeiro-Addy, and Hyde chief executive Andy Hulme alongside other Hyde staff, plus local councillors. The meeting was extraordinary because Hulme is notoriously shy about engaging… Continue reading Familiar Stories from Hyde’s Meeting with Stockwell Tenants and Residents
Democratising social housing : health and wellbeing, tenants' rights, resistance, and collective action. By Carl Davis Last week, I found myself wandering round the Hard Graft exhibition at the Wellcome Collection. Hard Graft looks at the impact of work on health. It mainly considers the physical impact on exploited and underrepresented workers, who they are,… Continue reading Hard Graft – Challenging Social Housing Conditions
The Regulator of Social Housing has reported that service charge income for housing associations soared by 15.8% to £1.9 billion in the year to March 2024. Also in 2024, service charge disputes brought to the First Tier Tribunal concurred that tenants and residents had been overcharged in over 70% of cases. Taken together, these figures… Continue reading Tribunals Research Finds Overcharging in 70% of Cases as HA Service Charge Income Soars
By Dave Lake, MTVHA Resident and Chair of Royal Mint Court Residents Association My residents' association needs to raise £30,000 to have a fighting chance of success at a public inquiry into the relocation of the Chinese Embassy to our estate. We are fighting to prevent the Chinese government's plans for a super-embassy next to… Continue reading Financial Appeal: MTVHA Residents v Chinese Embassy
By Gerald Kennedy and Suzanne Muna The 2024 Renters Reform Bill is still making its way through Parliament, with suggested amendments from campaign groups. The new law is often referred to as 'Awaab's Law' after the death of toddler Awaab Ishak from the toxic effects of damp and mould. The new provisions, we understand, have… Continue reading Awaab’s Law and Renters Reform: An Enforcement Crisis
