1. Manifesto time ‘our story’ Jenny Hill & Martyn Lund – Tenant Group members, Association of Retained Council Housing (ARCH)

2. Warts and all story…. ….. of how the ARCH Tenants Group were involved in an exercise to develop tenants’ priorities which influenced the content of the ARCH and National Federation of ALMO’s manifesto,launched at House of Commons earlier this year and what has happened since.

3. ARCH Tenants Group Meet four times a year Our Chair and Vice Chair are Directors on the ARCH Executive Board There are currently 14 tenants on the Tenants' Group

4. Summary of Tenants Group role Meet and discuss topical issues affecting Council tenants Feed in ideas and suggestions to ARCH Executive Develop content for conference each year Raise profile of ARCH Represent Tenants Group as Directors

6. AR ARCH TENANTS CONFERENCE BIRMINGHAM 19 th SEPTEMBER 2014 MAIN EXERCISE TENANTS MANIFESTO

8. How the Manifesto evolved A summary was given of the top priorities at the conference it went back to the Tenant Group Meeting Open discussion Formatted by Matthew Warburton Policy Advisor of ARCH

9. Tenants Priorities Sustain local communities by making it easier for people to find homes near family, friends, workplaces and amenities Rebuild the economy by creating more jobs in construction Improve the nation’s health by reducing overcrowding and insanitary housing, with savings to the NHS.

10. RIGHT TO BUY Reform the right to buy to end the incentive for speculative purchases and ensure sold homes are replaced so long as local need persists. The Right to Buy was introduced to enable long- standing tenants to own the homes they lived in, not to encourage them to speculate in the housing market or set up as landlords.Councils should be enabled to set discounts that reflect local conditions and buyers required to repay the discount if they sell or rent out the property within 5 years. Receipts from sales should be used in full to help fund one-for-one replacement of sold homes wherever local need remains.

11. SCRAP THE BEDROOM TAX This reform unfairly discriminates against tenants of working age receiving benefits. Under-occupation is a wasteful use of our national housing stock but it occurs in all tenures and is more prevalent among pensioners and owner-occupiers, to whom the bedroom tax does not apply. Action to tackle it should apply fairly among all those affected and include building more homes that are attractive for under-occupiers to move to.

12. UNIVERSAL CREDIT Make payment direct to the landlord under Universal Credit a “tenant choice”. Councils, along with other landlords, are worried that payment of Universal Credit direct to tenants will lead to an increase in rent arrears. The government has proposed complicated rules that will limit the circumstances under which payment of the housing element can be made direct to the landlord. Tenants have not been consulted on any of this. We propose that any tenant should be able to opt for direct payment to the landlord.

13. DECENT HOMES AND MORE Ensure that councils continue to improve the energy efficiency of the homes they own. Self-financing has enabled councils with housing to ensure that all their homes meet the Decent Homes standard. But they need to do more to improve the energy efficiency of the council housing stock and lower tenants’ heating bills. By 2020, we want to see an average SAP rating of at least 70 for every council’s housing, and no council home with a SAP rating of less than 40.

14. WHAT HAPPENED NEXT? Joint meeting with the NFA National Federation of ALMO’s Email consultation with the Tenants Group on the proposed joint manifesto Amendments made to the manifesto Launch of the manifesto at the House of Commons spring 2015 ARCH Executive requesting a meeting with Minister

15. HOUSE OF COMMONS LAUNCH