1 Annual Report 2017
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Annual Report 2017
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Chair’s report
Is the political landscape changing for renters?
Government Proposals
Cabinet Office ‘Policy Lab’
The Government and Cold Homes
London-wide changes
Party Conferences and Private Renting commitments
Brent Council’s actions
Working with the best landlords and agents
Meeting the challenge
Housing Advice
Taking legal action to challenge decisions
Mentoring
Work with Migrants and Refugees
Brent Community Advice Network (BCAN)
Expanding our advice services
Many changes - many people to thank
Contents
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During the past year we have implemented major changes to our organisation, reshaping our structure and taking action to ensure the sustainability of our activities in the future. Times are challenging and securing funds to support our activities is hard, with fewer funding sources but with as many if not more charities applying for the same pool of money.
It has been a demanding process, but is one that I believe any organisation should carry out at some point, to ensure that it has the right structures and governance to meet its mission and the expectations of its users.
Chair’s report
Changes in the Board of Trustees
First, some long-standing members decided to move on.
Second, we welcomed Ilias Efessios, a senior businessman who has been acting chair until the Board selected a new chairperson.
Lastly, I’ll mention of course myself joining the Board as Chair.
To cut a long story short, new blood for a new episode; the ball keeps rolling on.
Reshaping our structure
Thanks to special funding our CEO Jacky Peacock managed to raise, the Board was able to hire external consultants to have an in-depth look at our structure and put forward suggestions to streamline our processes.
Partly based on this analysis, the Board implemented key changes in our staffing and structure to bolster our activities whilst implementing changes in our processes, gaining efficiency and capitalising on our strengths.
Finally, we welcome Mark Eastwood, an experienced businessman and auditor, who has kindly agreed to volunteer his services as a part-time Office Manager until December 2017. Mark will ensure that our structural changes are working well and that staff have the support they need, freeing up CEO Jacky Peacock’s time to focus on setting up newly funded projects, as well as further fundraising.
Our transition period is well under way and we are already seeing an improvement in our activities and our finances.
Supporting vulnerable tenants
It is amazing to see how our action positively impacts on the lives of those who seek our services. It is a constant reminder that we play a major role in people’s lives, bringing a sense of fairness and dignity to a population that would otherwise be lost in a legal system that is difficult to navigate.
But clearly, we are limited by tenancy laws that were created at a time when the situation was very different to what we have now. It is therefore very important that A4R keeps lobbying for much-needed changes to our legislation.
Olivier Ribert
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After years of calling for improvements to the way the private rented sector operates, and for more
protection for private renters, we sometime felt like asking ‘Is there anybody out there?’
Even when the 2011 Census revealed that the private rented sector has grown by more than a third in the previous ten years (and by almost a half in Brent), there was still a deafening silence from politicians.
Undeterred, we’ve maintained our policy and campaigning work, consulting renters, drawing on our caseworkers’ knowledge of the many difficulties tenants face, and working with others who share our commitment to improving private renting, in order to develop the case for change and to make our arguments to those with the power to put the changes into effect.
Suddenly, over the last year, politicians of all political parties, as well as other policy makers, have begun to listen and to respond, nationally, in London, and here in Brent. Below is an outline of just some of the many new initiatives.
Government Proposals
The first glimmer of hope came in February 2017 with the Government White Paper, ‘Fixing the Broken Housing Market’. However, despite acknowledging the huge growth in private renting, and that, “standards in the private rented sector remain below those in the social and owner occupied sectors,” a modest plan to encourage longer term tenancies which would only apply to newly built homes with rents beyond the reach of those on ordinary incomes, was pretty much a damp squib for most renters.
Cabinet Office ‘Policy Lab’
The Policy Lab comes under the Cabinet Office and works across all Government departments. It aims to bring new policy tools and techniques to the UK Government. Over the Summer, it decided to focus on private renting. Advice4Renters has been actively engaged in this enterprise, and while retaining a degree of scepticism about it effectiveness, we have seen some of our own ideas for change channelled through to prototypes to be tested.
After interactive workshops and a lot of ‘phone calls and email exchanges, six prototypes were agreed.
An online information portal to support landlords and tenants to know their rights and responsibilities
Long-term tenancy labelling to encourage better and longer lettings for families
Tenancy Standard to improve the standard of homes offered to tenants
Tenant References – a means for regular rent payments to increase tenants’ credit ratings to help tenants to demonstrate to landlords that they will pay their rent on time
A landlord register to incentivise landlord professionalization and behaviour change
‘Raise It’ – a publicity campaign to encourage tenants to raise concerns with their landlords.
“In the 10 years from 2005/6 to 2015/6 there are around 945,000 more households in the sector
with children.”
English Housing Survey Headline Report, 2015-16
Is the political landscape changing for renters?
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The Government and Cold Homes
As members of the End Fuel Poverty Coalition, we played our part in calling for action over a number of years, resulting in legislation to prevent lettings of the most energy inefficient homes. This will come into force next year for new lets, and will apply to all lettings from 2020.
The Chart below, from a new Citizens Advice publication, ‘Effective Energy Efficiency Standards for Private Renters’, compares the energy efficiency of private rented homes with the average for all homes in England.
Our delight was later tempered when we learnt that there was a huge loophole in the legislation. Landlords could apply to be exempt from this law, if improvements to tenants’ homes would cost them any money! The Coalition has been calling for a ‘Cost Cap’ meaning that landlords could only apply for an exemption if the amount they need to spend is more than £5,000. That doesn’t sound a lot, but it would easily cover the installation of central heating or double glazing. The government has said it will consult on this before Christmas so we will be ready to respond, and will encourage private renters to do the same.
London-wide changes
Meanwhile, the Mayor, Sadiq Khan, is starting to implement his Manifesto promises. A new online Rogue Landlord Register is about to be piloted with six local authorities, including Brent. Each borough will enter details of all the landlords that they prosecute, and when the Register has been tested, it will be opened up to all London boroughs. The main purpose of the Register is for Councils to check up on landlords who operate across more than one borough, but it will also be available to the public, so that tenants will be able to see if their landlord (or one they are thinking of renting from) is on the Register.
Party Conferences and Private Renting commitments
In the Autumn, the main political Parties were anxious to be seen to address private renters’ concerns, with Labour promising rent controls, and the Conservatives talking about regulating all letting agents; requiring all landlords to join a redress scheme; introducing housing courts; incentives for landlords to let on longer tenancies; and increasing the Notice requiring possession from two to three months.
In the coming year, Advice4Renters will be working hard to persuade politicians to turn their words into action.
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Brent Council’s actions
Brent has been taking a much more robust attitude to enforcing its Licensing Schemes of late, and Advice4Renters supports this action. The Council has had a lot of publicity this year as they have exposed the worst horrors, such as the recent case of 35 tenants sharing a three bedroom house.
However, we have voiced our concerns that, in many cases, the upshot of the enforcement action means that the tenants lose their homes altogether. We are therefore working with Brent to find better ways that they can consult the tenants affected. We want Brent to make sure tenants understand their rights and are referred to us for help, and to take heed of tenants’ views when they decide what action to take.
Our own visits to such properties demonstrates that the tenants living in the very worst conditions are almost all migrants and refugees, which has led to our Migrant and Refugees Project (see below). Brent now gives A4R’s advice leaflets to the tenants when they visit.
Working with the best landlords and agents
The horror stories we hear from tenants who seek help from us about the way they are treated by their landlords and letting agents could lead us to think that the whole private rented sector is run by very dubious people. While there are far more bad landlords than policy makers admit, we do know that there are many landlords and agents who genuinely strive to put the needs of tenants first when they let and manage tenants’ homes. Of course, we see few of their tenants in our Housing Advice Centre, because if the tenants are happy they will not need to come to us for help.
What may seem surprising though, is that the best landlords and agents are as keen as we are to see private renting properly regulated. This is why we are pleased to be a member of The Lettings Industry Council, and to work with them in calling on the Government to legislate to properly regulate the sector. We believe that presenting the Government with a consensus on how the sector needs to change which comes from tenants, landlords, agents and other stakeholders, is powerful and should be heeded.
Is the political landscape changing for renters?
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Housing Advice
Our Housing Advice Centre remains at the heart of our work, and more people than ever need our help.
Our legal team assisted 340 people with detailed casework during the year and concluded 264 cases (up from 228 in the previous year).
Of the cases resolved, nearly 1 in 5 families were better off financially, mainly through increased benefits or tax credits, or by receiving compensation from the landlord, and one client had a large debt written off. We prevented homelessness for 141 families (53% of clients) and 30 (11%) were helped to move to better accommodation. 44 families (17%) had their homes improved and/or better managed.
It’s not just the presenting problem – we’re about helping people towards a more fulfilled life and a sense of wellbeing
For the first time, we started to record the people helped by our reception team (our Reception Support Officer, Denise Dodd, and her team of volunteers - our unsung heroes). They are trained to give as much assistance as they can, which is anything from listening and sympathising over a cup of tea, making ‘phone calls to obtain information, or helping people to find the advice they need online, often through our website, Brent Advice Matters, run by Brent Advice Partnership.
In a year, we helped 97 ‘walk-in’ enquirers looking for places to rent, how to get a deposit, etc. We dealt with 297 enquiries through our Info email and our website; and responded to 250 telephone calls about issues including tenancy deposit disputes, landlords entering homes without notice, and noise nuisance from neighbours.
Assisting people under our legal aid contract can be very frustrating as there are so many restrictions on the areas that we can give advice on, and help is limited to ‘crisis points’ when we know that early intervention can be so much more effective. Often, our reception team complement the work of our legal advisers to provide the rounded help people need.
Case Study
Mr P has worked in the UK for ten years and when he was made redundant he did not claim Job Seekers Allowance as he expected to find re-employment very quickly. He did contact the Council about getting housing benefit and was told to apply online. This didn’t work out, and after several failed attempts to find out what was going wrong he contacted us. Our Reception team assisted Mr P with My Account, uploading documents and setting up an email account for him.
We found out that his housing benefit was not processed because his Tenancy Agreement stated ‘No DSS’. By this time Mr P had rent arrears of £2.5k and the landlord was seeking possession so he was given an appointment with our legal team.
One of our solicitors represented Mr P in court and negotiated with the landlord’s solicitor while our Reception team got Mr P’s benefits sorted out, included a backdated amount to cover the arrears.
Reception assisted Mr P, via our BAM website, regarding his tenancy deposit which the landlord had not protected as the law requires.
When the landlord had dropped his claim for possession, Reception helped Mr P to use our public computer to access new job sites, upload his CV, and to search for more affordable accommodation.
Our solicitor spent 11 hours to prevent the client from becoming homeless, while our Reception recorded 4 hours of complementary work.
Meeting the challenge
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Work with Migrants and Refugees
Much as we applaud Brent Council’s new ‘Get Tough’ approach to the worst landlords in the borough, their action does have a downside. Our work with private tenants living in the very worst conditions, often overcrowded and frequently in poor repair, shows that almost all these tenants are from migrant or refugee communities. It’s a sad awakening for those coming to London in the hope of a better life, to have to face such conditions.
Most do not know anything about their rights as tenants or what standards they should be able to expect. Too often, when Brent tells landlords what they must do to bring their properties up to standard, the landlords’ response is to tell the tenants that they must leave.
It’s often impossible to trace where these tenants go, but it is no coincidence that the number of migrants and refugees sleeping rough in London is increasing rapidly
With a funding grant from the TDS Foundation, we have been able to expand our work with these renters and explore ways of raising their awareness of their tenancy rights. We’ve been building links with migrant and refugee support agencies, to use their channels to publicise renters’ rights. Our advice leaflets have been translated into all the main East European languages as these are the fastest growing communities coming to Brent. We have also raised our concerns with the Greater London Assembly as we believe that there should be a London-wide approach to meet this challenge.
Taking legal action to challenge decisions
In 2016-2017 our solicitors handled 48 cases involving court action. These are particularly time-consuming, often taking over a year to resolve, but these can not only result in benefit to clients, they can also influence the law, and how future decisions are made for similar cases.
A4R hits the legal headlines
One example of a major appeal case resulted in a judgement that has influenced the issues that all London Councils have to consider before deciding whether accommodation outside London is suitable to offer to a family who have become homeless. Our case made headlines in legal circles, including being referred to at the LAG/Arden Chambers Annual Homelessness Conference.
Meeting the challenge
Another case hit the headlines when we challenged Westminster’s finding that our client was not homeless. When this decision was upheld after a Review, we appealed the decision in court.
Westminster had decided that our client had accommodation available to her with her children in India. Our client had come to the UK 16 years ago and was granted British Citizenship. She has been estranged from her children for 30 years. We argued that,
i) The Council had not made sufficient enquiries
ii) The Council did not properly consider whether our client had any right to occupy her children’s home
iii) The Council had not considered whether it was reasonable for our client to re-locate to India
iv) The Council had not considered cultural issues and had required our client to prove her case.
The appeal was upheld by the court on all four grounds and Westminster’s decision was quashed.
Mentoring
Our Mentoring and Befriending Service, which was formally accredited with the APS (Approved Provider Standard) in January, sadly had to be suspended while we sought alternative funding, following the end of a generous grant from the British Gas Energy Trust (via our partners, Energy Solutions). We are delighted to say that we have recently had a new grant confirmed by the Tudor Trust, which will enable us to get this much valued service up and running again, under a new version of our Under One Roof project, to help those in poverty, including fuel poverty.
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Brent Community Advice Network (BCAN)
We love giving advice and we also like partnering with others to increase the number of people who can be helped. That’s why we were keen to develop Brent Community Advice Network (more commonly known by its positive sounding initials, BCAN).
Our first year was largely spent on identifying some of the many small groups giving advice and information, some of which is provided as a small activity within a larger organisation such as a church or sports centre.
We’ve discovered a number of groups relying solely on volunteers, who are funding their service from their own pockets. It’s great to have an opportunity to help these services to develop. A key target in our first year was to support organisations to become accredited with the Advice Quality Standard (AQS) but as we’ve progressed, we’ve realised that we need to be able to offer a broader range of support and training. We will be exploring and consulting on our ideas in the coming year.
Expanding our advice services
In April 2017, we took over the one-day a week Advice Centre in South Kilburn known as ASK, which stands for Advising South Kilburn.
This is a general advice service, mainly around welfare benefits and money problems, which is ably managed by Mark Keepin, who gained his experience working with us as a volunteer member of our reception team for over a year.
In the first six months Mark and his volunteer team Eugene and Nilufer, helped 144 people, of whom 38 were financially better off. They received combined one-off payments totalling £31,906 and/or periodical (annual) payments amounting to a very impressive £129,164.
One of our BCAN members, SAAFI
The Somali Advice and Forum of Information (SAAFI) is a community based organisation initiated and led by Somali-British mothers with a refugee background who represent the diverse Somali speaking regions in Africa. Set up in 2004 and constituted formally in 2008, they came together to address problems associated with positive integration in education, housing, income support and health; and to help the future employment/education prospects of their children and grand-children in the UK.
Over the years they have become a valued resource to the Somali speaking community in Brent and are approached for advice and advocacy support around all aspects of family life, from problems at school to threats to housing. They provide an essential bridging service, based partly on their translation and interpretation support, but also as advocates and navigators through ever-changing social and welfare systems. They are also one of the organisations that hold sessions at the Harlesden Hub, established by LB Brent at Harlesden Library in mid-2016 to improve community access to support.
SAAFI remains very small and is reliant on volunteers and limited funding. The crucial language and peer support they provide is not covered by a funding stream. Like many small organisations, this means that a disproportionate amount of time is given to survival and chasing enough funds to survive. BCAN recognises that organisations such as SAAFI are vital to reach communities that may not access mainstream provision and we are working with them to explore alternatives to formal AQS accreditation that will support their survival and strengthen the advice network across Brent.
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At last year’s AGM members said goodbye to Julia Atkins who, as Chair, had endeavoured to steer
our ship through choppy waters over a period of many years. We remain hugely grateful to her for her dedication to A4R during that difficult time.
There have been a lot more changes since then.
With funding from the Local Sustainability Fund, money from the Government which was administered by the Big Lottery Fund, A4R worked with consultants to take a root and branch look at how we deliver our services, most notably, the housing advice we provide through legal aid. For many years, we made a loss on this work, because the fees are so low.
The Sustainability Fund also allowed us to employ additional temporary staff, including a Business Development Manager, Carlos Tapia Montes, who worked to raise the profile of A4R in neighbouring boroughs as well as exploring new sources of income. We were very grateful to Carlos and thank him for his contribution. We were equally grateful to Paul Kirkup who spent nine months with us as a Digital Media Manager. In that time, he transformed our website to include legal advice and information, plus ways people can join online and find out more about our service. Paul also developed our e-Newsletter, and much more besides.
We also re-launched Renters Legal, our service for paying clients. This service is aimed at tenants who may be just over the financial threshold for legal aid, but who could not afford a private solicitor who would charge roughly three times our hourly rate. We were pleased to recruit solicitor, Gusta Glover, to lead our Renters Legal project, and we are delighted that she is now a permanent member of our legal team.
Our thanks to Matt Howgate and Steve Clare, our main Sustainability consultants, plus their colleagues from DG Legal and Locality.
We were also very sorry to lose the services of our accountant, Paul Spooner, who gave us many years of excellent service, before he had to resign for health reasons. We will always be grateful to him.
The biggest and most painful change was the re-structure of our Housing Advice Centre so that we could employ more solicitors with the ability to earn higher legal aid fees, with support staff. This meant that we had to say goodbye to Gary Cornforth and Sharon Dibosa, very long-standing and much valued housing advisers, as well as our Projects Support Officer, Giulia Poli. We thank them all for their long and loyal service and wish them well for the future.
Especial thanks is due to Amita Bhardway, who as A4R trustee and a Human Resources consultant, was able to steer us through the staffing changes and ensure that our staff were treated fairly. We also thank solicitors, Chris Bracebridge and Ashley Moss of Covington & Burling, who gave us unstinting, pro bono legal support and advice.
There were changes too at Board level, with the departure of Steph Harrison who, like Julia Atkins, served as a trustee for some 12 years. We were also sorry to lose Debbie Ricketts and Sue Waller, both for health reasons.
Given the need to strengthen the Board with some fresh faces and skills, a recruitment exercise was conducted to seek a trustee with business skills to help us to back our charitable commitment with a solid business approach. As a result, the Board welcomed Ilias Efessios, who has run a variety of businesses both in Greece and in London.
To complete the changes our new Chair, Olivier Ribert, was appointed to lead A4R through its next phase of development.
We also want to thank all the staff for their continued service to clients which did not waiver throughout the period of unsettling change.
Many Changes – Many People to Thank
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Our Trustees
Amita Bhardway
Ilias Efessios
Christopher Gunn
John Kwan
Helen Mangan
Olivier Ribert
Our Staff
Jacky Peacock, Executive Director
Ronald Daley, Senior Solicitor, Head of Legal Team
Gusta Glover, Senior Solicitor
Denise Dodd, Support Officer (Reception)
Tiziana Falco, Support Officer (Client Care)
Mark Keepin (Generalist Adviser)
Freelance
Katherine Wilkinson, BCAN Co-ordinator
Phil Jacobs, Consultant Solicitor
Tony Ethapemi, Consultant Solicitor
Our Bankers
Unity Trust Bank
PO Box 7193
Planetary House
Willenhall
WV1 9DG
Our Independent Examiner
Jackson Nicholas Assie Limited
Chartered Certified Accountants
6-6A Ashley House
Ashley Road
N17 9LZ
Last, but not least, our thanks go to our funders, and to all who made donations, large and small to enable our work to continue.
Brent Private Tenants’ Rights Group Limited (Advice4Renters)
36-38 Willesden Lane, London NW6 7ST
Tel 020 7624 4327 Fax 020 7625 8358
[email protected] www.advice4renters.org.uk
Company Number 246887 Charity Number 1051979
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