TAROE held another successful Annual Conference in Bristol on 3rd March 2010. It included a key note speech from the Housing and Planning Minister, the Rt. Hon. John Healey MP.
At the event, John Healey made a series of announcements. It included measures to help working tenants to stay out of debt, a group that he acknowledged is often “overlooked”.
Further announcements included £1.3 million in 15 pilot areas to assist many thousands of working tenants claim benefits and tax credits as well as access training and financial advice.
Mr Healey also outlined proposals for a pilot project as part of his Party’s commitments to increasing housing mobility. The Homefinder scheme will assist tenants to move in order to take up employment in other areas, and will be trialled in the North East, North West, and Yorkshire and Humber areas in the North of England.
Finally, Mr Healey announced that there will be a fundamental review of the current CLG Tenant Empowerment Grant programme in order to ensure that grants are spent on the right projects in the right places.
The event also featured key note speeches from:
· Michael Gelling, Chair of TAROE
· Graeme Foster, Assistant Director - Tenant Excellence from the Tenant Services Authority
A “Question Time” panel session gave delegates an opportunity to ask questions of the following:
· Samantha McGrady, HouseMark (Chair)
· Michael Gelling, TAROE
· Rafael Runco, Housing Ombudsman Service
· Peter Fenn, Department of Communities and Local Government
· Graeme Foster, Tenant Services Authority
· Nic Bliss, Confederation of Co-operative Housing
Finally, delegates also had an opportunity to attend a series of workshops. These ere held covering the following areas:
· Co-regulation and local standards
· Complaints procedures
· HouseMark Good Practice in the housing sector
· What else tenants need to know – TAROE
· NTV Moving from Planning to Delivery
· Scrutiny Panels – Developing Tenant Led Regulation: A Case Study
A copy of all the presentations from the day are stored within the Documents section on the TAROE website and reproduced below:
TAROE National Conference Bristol 2010 Michael Gelling address
TAROE National Conference Bristol 2010 TSA address
TAROE National Conference Bristol 2010 Workshop Main Hall
TAROE National Conference Bristol 2010 Workshop 1
TAROE National Conference Bristol 2010 Workshop 2
TAROE National Conference Bristol 2010 Workshop 3
TAROE National Conference Bristol 2010 Workshop 4
TAROE National Conference Bristol 2010 Workshop 5
Photographs from the event will be published shortly in the Gallery on the TAROE website.
A big thank you from TAROE to all delegates that attended the event and made it a successful day!
