|
Glossary of Terms
Provided by TACT@Dome for
the tenants and leaseholders of Taunton Deane Borough Council
|
|
|
|
Anti-Social Behaviour - is behaviour which
goes against what is generally acceptable to society. This can include
criminal acts as well as less serious ones such as general un-neighbourly
behaviour. This term has no legal status. |
|
|
|
Anti-Social Behaviour Order (ASBO) - allows
a Council and/or Registered Social Landlord (RSL) to apply to the
court to stop an individual behaving in a particular way and/or from
going to particular places. |
|
|
|
Arms Length Management Organisation (ALMO) - is
a way of placing the management and maintenance of Council
homes in a separate operating company, owned by the Council, but
run by a Board including tenants. Private money may be
raised to repair and improve works to Council housing. Funding
available, by competition, from 2002/03 in England only. |
|
|
|
Assignment - is transfer of a lease or tenancy
agreement from one leaseholder or tenant to someone else. |
|
|
|
Assured Tenancy - is
a type of tenancy that a Registered Social Landlord (RSL) must offer. |
|
|
|
Audit Commission -
is the Government's inspection and assessment organisation responsible
for Best Value (BV) and Corporate Performance Assessment (CPA).
It inspects the housing services of Councils and housing associations.
|
|
|
|
Best Value - is used by Councils and RSLs to
review the services they provide and improve service quality and
cost-effectiveness. This must be done in consultation with
people who use the services and the wider community. |
|
|
|
Board (Sometimes called Committee of Management) - is
a group of people who are ultimately responsible for a Registered
Social Landlord's or ALMO's finances, performance, direction and
accountability. Between 1/3rd and 2/3rd of
the Board can be Tenant Board Members. 1/3rd must
be Community (Independent) members. |
|
|
|
Business Plan - is a long-term (30 year) forecast
of all money coming in and being spent by a Landlord. |
|
|
|
Chartered Institute for Housing (CIH) - is
the professional organisation for people who work in housing. The
CIH is a registered charity and a non-profit making organisation. |
|
|
|
Community Housing Task Force (CHTF) - is a Government
organisation developed to support Councils through option appraisal
and development of chosen options such as transfer to a new landlord
or ALMO. |
|
|
|
Council Tax - is
a property based tax paid to local Councils by all residents and
businesses to help pay for the services (except housing) the Council
provides. |
| |
CPA (Comprehensive Performance Assessment) -
is about helping Councils deliver better services to local communities.
All Councils in the country are subject to the CPA |
|
|
|
Decent Home Standard - is the Government's definition
of the minimum standard that social landlords (Councils and Housing
Associations) should meet for all their properties by 2010. A
decent home is one that is wind and weather tight, warm and has modern
facilities. |
|
|
|
Defend Council Housing (DCH) - is the anti-transfer
Union-sponsored lobby Group that aims to prevent transfer and ALMOs. |
|
|
|
Department for Work & Pensions (DWP) - was
formed in June 2001 combining parts of the former Department of Social
Security (DSS) and the Department for Education and Employment (DfEE). The
department is committed to providing people of working age, pensioners
and children with the advice and help they need to achieve financial
independence and make the most of life. |
|
|
|
Electoral Reform Ballot Services (ERBS) - is
a not for profit company that specialises in running ballots
for all sorts of organisations. Usually runs tenants' ballots
for transfer. |
|
|
|
Enhanced Assured Tenancy - is the type
of tenancy offered to transferring tenants if a transfer to an RSL
goes ahead. Includes most of the rights that Council tenants
have with their Council tenancy and sometimes increases some of the
rights. |
|
|
|
Funder - is a Bank or Building Society
that lends money to Social Landlords or Council. |
|
|
|
Government Office of the South West (GOSW)
- is an outpost of central government and has offices in
Bristol, Plymouth and Truro. They represent the work and interests
of several Government departments such as the Department of Trade
and Industry (DTI), Office of the Deputy PrimeMinister (ODPM),
Department for Transport (DFT) to name but a few.
This means they can tackle issues that cut across the boundaries
of more than one Whitehall department, and as part of central Government,
also help and inform on the development of departments' policies
from a regional perspective. In respect of social housing, their
aim is to give everyone the opportunity of a decent home, and so
promote social well-being and self-dependence. |
|
|
|
Green Paper - is used by
the Government to consult about future policies. |
|
|
|
Group Structure - is a way of RSLs getting
together with the aim of achieving diversity and cost efficiency,
by sharing services and expertise. Members are subsidiaries
of a Parent, which may or may not own assets (property). |
|
|
|
Harassment - is behaviour which is deliberately
intended to intimidate, dominate or harm members of identified groups
because of their perceived differences such as people from a particular
minority ethnic background. |
|
|
|
Housing Association - is a type of Registered
Social Landlord. |
|
|
|
Housing Benefit (HB) - helps tenants
to pay their rent. It is also known as a rent rebate or rent
allowance. All tenants, Council, Housing Association or private,
are eligible to apply. How much help anyone receives depends
on their income and other circumstances. The
administration of Housing Benefit is usually undertaken by the Council. |
|
|
|
Housing Corporation (HC) - is the main
Government agency for supporting Registered Social Landlords (RSLs) in
England. It makes grants to RSLs and supervises and regulates
their work. |
|
|
|
Housing Debt - is the money the Council
owes on its existing homes. |
|
|
|
Housing Revenue Account (HRA) - applies
only to Councils. All rents and subsidies go into this account. The
Council uses it to record all housing expenditure. It is the
base for the Council's housing business plan. |
|
|
|
Injunction - is an order from the court to make
a tenant keep a tenancy condition, or to stop damage to premises,
trespassing on property or to stop anti-social behaviour. |
|
|
|
Levy - is the money that the Council has to
pay the Government from the sale proceeds when LSVT (see below) takes
place. |
|
|
|
Large Scale Voluntary Transfer (LSVT) - is
the transfer of all of a Council's social housing to a Housing Association
or similar provider. |
|
|
|
Mediation - is where an impartial third party
helps people who have disputes to reach an agreement between themselves. |
|
|
|
Memorandum and Articles (M + A) - is a document
that describes the rules and powers of a limited company. |
|
|
|
National Housing Federation (NHF) - is
a body that represents the independent Social Housing sector in
England. It promotes, supports, represents and negotiates the
interests of its members. |
|
|
|
Notice of Intention to Seek Possession (NOSP / NISP) - is
a notice served by a landlord on a tenant telling the tenant that
the landlord intends to go to court to get an eviction notice. |
|
|
|
Nuisance - is behaviour which unreasonably interferes
with other people's rights to the use and enjoyment of their home
and community, such as playing loud music late at night. |
|
|
|
Office
of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM) - is
a Government department. Its work includes implementing
Government policy on housing, and drawing up the rules (The Guidelines)
that apply to the consultation and process for transferring management
and/or ownership of Council homes in England. |
|
|
|
Partial transfer is - where only
part of council housing is transferred to an RSL (see below). |
|
|
|
Private Finance Initiative (PFI) - is
a way of getting private money into repair and improvement works
to Council Housing. Being piloted now on a few small areas
of Council homes in England, it involves a contractor taking on the
risks of providing building and housing management services |
|
|
|
Registered Social Landlord (RSL) - is
"Registered" with Housing Corporation in England or Welsh Assembly
Government in Wales; "Social" in its purpose - not public or private
and not profit making; "Landlord" because that is what it
is. Councils can only transfer their homes to Registered Social
Landlords. |
|
|
|
Rent Convergence - is the
Government's aim of Council and Registered Social Landlord tenants
paying similar rents for properties of similar size and condition,
in a Council area. The aim is to achieve this within 10 years
(2011/12). |
|
|
|
Regional Development Agencies - are public
bodies which aim to co-ordinate regional economic development and
regeneration, including housing investment (through Regional Housing
Boards - known in the SW as the South West Regional Housing
Body). |
|
|
|
Repair Order - is granted by the Court where
a landlord is not meeting its obligation to keep a home in habitable
condition. Applies to all landlords. |
|
|
|
Retail Price Index (RPI) - is
the measure for increases or decreases in the Costs of living. |
|
|
|
Secure Tenancy - is the type of tenancy
that Councils give to their tenants. Registered Social Landlords
have not been allowed to use this type of agreement since 1989. |
|
|
|
Securitisation - is a way of borrowing from
banks and building societies that secures repayments against rents
as opposed to property. |
|
|
|
Shadow Board - is a group of people who prepare
a new Registered Social Landlord, so that it can be registered with
the relevant bodies if tenants vote in favour of a transfer |
|
|
|
Sheltered housing - is aimed at older and/or
disabled people. |
|
|
|
Social Housing Grant (SHG) - is a Government
grant paid by the Housing Corporation for providing new Social Housing. |
|
|
|
Stock Condition Survey - forecasts all works
needed to all homes, over the next 30 years. A sample of each type
of home is used to form the basis of the costing. |
|
|
|
Supporting People - is a new mechanism
for the funding care and support services for people living in supported
or independent accommodation. These costs must be separated from
those related to housing costs. |
|
|
|
Target rents - are the rents for properties
of similar size and condition that Council and Registered Social
Landlords (including Housing Associations) will need to reach, within
10 years (by 2011). They are worked out on local incomes, the
value, size and condition of the homes. |
|
|
|
Tenants Charter - details the
rights and standards of service that assured tenants can expect from
Registered Social Landlords (RSLs). |
|
|
|
Tenants' Compact - is a written agreement
the Council has to have with its tenants, covering when and how they
will be involved in the development, monitoring and negotiation of
housing services. |
|
|
|
Tenant Management Organisation/Estate Management
Board (TMO/EMB) - is a formally recognised tenant body, with
an agreement with the landlord to manage some or all of the housing
management services within a specific area. |
|
|
|
Tenant Participation and Advisory Service (TPAS)
and TPAS Cymru - were originally set up by Government to promote
tenant participation. Now funded by members, which may be
landlords or tenants' groups. |
|
|
|
TMV/Valuation (Tenanted Market Value) - is
the amount of money that the new landlord pays to the Council for
the homes when there is a transfer. It assumes that all homes
remain available for letting at affordable rents for 30 years; and
that they will be brought up to an agreed standard, and kept in good
condition. |
|
|
|
TUPE (Transfer of Undertakings - Protection of Employment
Regulations) - is a European law that provides for protection
for employees of the Council, if there is a change in the ownership
or management of the homes. |
|
|
|
Unison/UCATT GMB/MSF - are Trades Unions that
represent housing staff. |
|
|
|
Voids - are empty homes. |
