Terry Edis MBE

In November last year the social housing sector mourned the death of Terry Edis – chair of the National Federation of Tenant Management Organisations, chair of WATMOS Community Homes and chair of Burrowes Street TMO. He was instrumental in turning Burrowes Street from a poorly managed unpopular estate into a well-run well-managed estate with a range of community activities.

Terry was also a key player in the setting up the National Tenant Voice.

He was an inspiring leader of the organisations he chaired. He brought to the NTV development and the New Dawn project not only a wealth of experience, but also passion, a great sense of humour and an extraordinary humanity.

(Extract From New Dawn Final Report)

National Developments Impacting on Local TMOs

The Economy and Expenditure Cuts :

•Welfare Reform•Personal Incomes•TMO Allowances•Social Impact

Localism :-

•Encouragement for Community Control•Power decentralised to Local Government

New Approach to Housing Regulation :-

•‘Co-regulation’ •Lighter touch consumer regulation•Single Housing Ombudsman

Social Housing/Welfare Reform:-

•Short Term Tenancies?•More flexibility in allocations?•Impact on Settled Communities?•Implications for TMOs?

Government wants to see more TMOs :-

•Right to Manage streamlining•Better use of TMO development grant•Challenge is to let tenants know about it!

Key findings of Urban Forum Research into TMOs Published this month:-

•TMOs show what is possible for residents to achieve - they provideexamples of residents successfully taking over public service contractsto a high standard of quality and efficiency.•TMOs have staying power - in the last decade the average age ofTMOs that survive has increased from 5 or 6 years old to over 15 yearsold.•There are structural and organisational barriers to growth of tenantmanagement in both local authority and housing association sectors.•TMOs and other community organisations face many of the samechallenges and experience many of the same issues. Better links andcommunication channels could enable these to be shared andexplored.•TMOs are potential agents in implementation of devolution in publicservice delivery and big society agendas. Policy and practice acrosssectors needs to reflect this.

cAROUND THEREGIONS