Guide to Terms and Abreviations

Acceptable Behaviour Contract - ABC

A written agreement between a young person who has been involved in Anti Social Behaviour, the police and local housing office. ABCs are not legally binding.

Annual General Meeting - AGM

An Annual General Meeting is held by an organisation at about the same time every year. At the meeting they report on the organisation’s work over the last year, present the accounts to their members and elect a new committee.

Anti Social Behaviour Order - ASBO

An ASBO is an injunction taken out against individuals who have been causing persistent acts of Anti Social Behaviour. The ASBO might ban them from entering a particular area (such as an estate or district). Local Authorities and police can issue ASBOs against any individual over 10 years old.

Audit Commission

An independent body with the responsibility for the external audit of all local authorities. The Housing Inspectorate is part of the Audit Commission.

Arms Length Management Organisation - ALMO

A company set up and owned by a local authority which manages council housing stock. Because the council retains ownership, there is no change in tenancy status.

Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council - BMBC

Benchmarking

Assessing an organisation’s performance by comparing it to that of other organisations of a similar size and purpose.

Big Society

Big Society is a government idea. The aim is to create a climate that empowers local people and communities, building a big society that will take power away from politicians and give it to people.

BME

Black & Minority Ethnic. Sometimes written as BEM (Black and Ethnic Minority).

Cave Review – Every Tenant Matters

Published in 2007, the first wholesale review of social housing regulation for a generation. Argued for landlords to be more responsive tenants, for a system of co-regulation and for a single regulator for all social landlords. Made the case for a National Tenant Voice.

Choice Based Lettings

An approach to letting homes where people ‘bid’ for the vacant home they want. Priority is still given to people with pressing need.

Citizens Advice Bureau - CAB

A Citizens Advice Bureau can give free advice and information to local people, in person or by telephone. They advise on problems like benefits, debt and consumer rights.

Chartered Institute of Housing

Organisation that awards professional qualifications to people who work in housing. It is also the representative body for housing professionals.

Code of Conduct

A code of conduct is a list of guidelines that describe how members of a committee or group are expected to carry out their duties and conduct themselves when at meetings, or acting on behalf of their organisation.

Communities and Local Government - CLG

Communities and Local Government (formerly the ODPM) - this is the Central Government Department which is responsible for the Supporting People programme and monitors the performance of each administering authority.

Co-Regulation

The idea in the Cave Review for the form of Housing regulation that there should be a more equal relationship between residents, landlords and central regulators. Landlords would have more freedom from central control if they do more to listen to and involve residents.

Credit Union

Credit unions are locally based savings schemes that provide low cost loans to people on a low income.

Crime and Safety Group – CSG

Volunteer groups throughout Barnsley who take a special interest in Crime and Safety issues in their local area.

Data Protection / Data Protection Act

Under the Data Protection Act (1998), individuals have certain rights to access information that is being held about them by organisations and companies. These organisations and companies also have a responsibility under the Act to store and use the data that they hold in a responsible way.

Decent Homes Standard

The Decent Homes Standard is a target set by Government for all social housing providers to meet set standards of design for their homes by 2010. In brief, a decent home will have to pass four tests: -

  • It has to meet the current statutory minimum standards for housing
  • It needs to be in a reasonable state of repair
  • It needs to have reasonably modern facilities and services
  • It needs to provide a reasonable degree of thermal comfort.

Disability Discrimination Act - DDA

Aims to end the discrimination which many disabled people face. This Act gives disabled people rights in the areas of: employment, access to goods, facilities and services, buying or renting land or property. It ensures that public bodies such as local councils, universities, hospitals and housing providers think about the needs of disabled people when planning their services.

Department for Work and Pensions - DWP

Government department dealing with employment, pensions, child welfare and disability. They have recently also taken responsibility for Health and Safety.

Environmental Regulatory Unit – ERU

A department of Barnsley Council that deals with issues such as dog fouling, fly tipping and noise pollution.

Equal Opportunities

Means treating all people equally, and not being prejudiced or discriminating against someone because of their ethnic origin, religion, sexuality, disability, gender or age.

Extraordinary General Meeting - EGM

A meeting of a group that occurs outside of usual group meeting times. An EGM might be called if new officers of the committee need to be elected, or if an urgent matter needs to be discussed.

Homes and Communities Agency - HCA

The new housing and regeneration agency for England. They provide funding for affordable housing and improve quality of life by raising standards for the physical and social environment and it also has responsibility for the Decent Homes Programme and for the overseeing of new Council Housing.

Housing Association

A non-profit making organisation which provides homes either for people who cannot afford to buy their own or who need special types of housing, for example elderly people. Associations usually have paid workers and are managed by a voluntary Management Committee.

Housing Revenue Account - HRA

Local authority account into which rents and any money from the Government are paid. It pays for repairs, managing and maintaining the housing stock, and repaying any money borrowed for past building and improvements.

Impact Teams/Housing Management Teams

These are small locally based teams of Berneslai Homes officers who are responsible for providing housing management services at a local level. They were known as Impact Teams but recently they have been renamed Housing Management Teams

Independent Member

A Federation member who lives in an area where there is no TARA. Independent members have one vote at Federation meetings.

Key Performance Indicator - KPI

The Government requires local authorities to publish Performance Indicators which is a report on (amongst other things) how effectively it is managing and repairing its properties.

Leaseholder

A person who does not own the land their home is built on, and pays a ground rent for a fixed number of years. Tenants who live in flats and buy them from their landlord are called leaseholders.

Local Government Ombudsman - LGO

In charge of investigating complaints made about local authorities. Before the LGO can be called in to investigate, the person making the complaint must have been through the local authority’s own Complaints procedure

Local Offers

ocal offers are locally agreed standards and supplement the TSA’s national standards.  They focus on issues such as tenant empowerment, repairs and maintenance and quality of accommodation.

Multi User Games Area - MUGA

Play/sports area for older children

National Tenant Voice - NTV

Proposed in the Cave Review. A national organisation to make the case for tenant rights and issues at the national level. Has recently been disbanded by government.

Neighbourhood Watch - NHW

Small local groups who form to prevent anti-social behavior in their local area.

One Barnsley - Local Strategic Partnership

A single body that brings together (at a local level) public, private, community and voluntary sector organisations so that different initiatives and services support each other and work together to tackle key issues for local people.

Owner Occupier

Someone who has purchased their home.

Planned Maintenance

A system of repairs and maintenance carried out by a local authority or housing association that has been decided in advance, and accounted for in the yearly budget. Planned maintenance is often carried out on a cyclical basis (e.g. every 10 years).

Private Finance Initiative - PFI

This is a form of public/private partnership (PPP) using private sector finance for the provision of public services through joint working. A PFI arrangement for local government is that the private sector partner may own the capital assets (your home in the case of housing PFI) as well as delivering the service.

Quorum

The minimum number of members an organisation needs at any meeting to make any decision, as laid down in its constitution.

Responsive Repairs

Repairs carried out by a landlord in response to a tenant reporting one, such as a broken window, overflowing cistern or damaged kitchen cupboard.

Right to Buy

Some local authority and housing association tenants have the legal right to buy their home at a price lower than the full market value, if they have been living there for more than two years.

Ring Fencing

Introduced in the Local Government and Housing Act (1989), this stops councils from moving money between the Housing Revenue Account and the Council Tax Fund.

Registered Social Landlord - RSL

This term was introduced by the Housing Act 1996 to describe a social landlord that is registered with the TSA. Housing associations and local housing companies are RSLs.

Safer Neighbourhood Area - SNA

Barnsley is divided into local policing area known as SNAs. Each SNA has two or more Safer Neighbourhood Teams.

Safer Neighbourhood Team - SNT

Barnsley has 10 SNTs that operate at a local level to build links with the community they serve. They are made up of Police Officers and Council staff whose entire remit is to focus on the needs of the local community.

Scrutiny Committee / Scrutiny Panel

A group of people who are elected or appointed to examine a local authorities decisions to make sure that they are right and fair. Some local authorities include Tenants on the Scrutiny Committee/Panel. Many housing providers are increasingly establishing scrutiny committees.

Secure Tenancy

The vast majority of local authority tenants, and housing association tenants whose tenancies began before 15 January 1989, are secure tenants and have a range of additional rights covered in the Housing Act 1985.

Security of Tenure

A tenant’s right to remain in their home indefinitely provided that they keep to the conditions of their tenancy agreement.

Self Financing

Self financing is a proposal regarding a new way of funding Social Housing. The Housing Revenue Account would be abolished and local authorities will be allowed to keep all income generated by their social housing and use for support of their social housing.

Service Level Agreement - SLA

A semi-formal arrangement covering the services that one department within an organisation will provide to another, or one organisation will provide to another.

Sheltered Housing

Special housing for elderly people who need someone near at hand to help them in an emergency.

Social Housing

Housing of an adequate standard which is cheaper than that which is generally available in the local housing market. This can comprise a combination of subsidised rented housing, subsidised low cost home ownership including shared ownership, and in some market situations cheap housing for sale.

Tenant Empowerment

Catch all term for a wide range of activities that are intended to ensure that citizens have more say in how their neighbourhoods and areas develop./p>

Tenant Services Authority - TSA

The organisation that regulates Housing Associations in England to make sure they deliver good quality services to residents.

Tenant Satisfaction Surveys

Form of consultation with tenants to find out how satisfied they are with Housing Services such as repairs.

Third Sector

The catch all term for organisations that don’t fit easily into ‘private’ or ‘public’. Includes community groups, voluntary organisations, charities, non-governmental organisations, social enterprises and housing associations.

Voids

Empty homes usually waiting for some work to be done or someone to move in.