Welcome to Glebe Court TMO
Tuesday 29th of March 2016
Glebe Court joins us as a new landlord member
Glebe Court Management Organisation is a resident led housing cooperative formed on 1st April 1997. It is run by a Management Committee comprised of up to 14 residents who meet on a regular basis and discuss the numerous activities relating to the management of the estates. Allowances are received from Circle Housing (Merton Priory) to carry out the effective management of the stock in terms set out in a Management Agreement, which was last updated in 2011. Within Glebe Square and Glebe Court, there are 300 flats and bungalows of varying sizes, from one to three bedrooms. There is a two to one split between tenants and leaseholders.
Under the terms of reference the TMO is obliged to seek re-election every 5 years. In a continuation ballot held during June 2015 it asked all residents whether they wanted Glebe Court Management Organisation to continue managing the estates. The response was an overwhelming vote in favour of theTMO with 97% (205 residents) of those who voted saying “Yes”. There was a fantastic turnout with over 59% of all residents (212 in total) taking the time to vote including 72% of tenants and 41% of leaseholders.
The TMO decided to join Tpas because 'you can teach an old dog new tricks'. Although many committee members have been in post for years, they see the importance of keeping up with trends in the social housing sector and seeking new initiatives as very important. The training opportunities and good practice facilitation offered through Tpas will be useful.
Glebe Court operates mainly through allowances received from Circle but has received no annual increase in its allowances since 2005 and has over the past two years actually been faced with a cut of 5% each year from that figure. Despite the cuts it has continued to be in the upper quartile in all of the activities it carries out and does not want to slip back despite difficult financial restraints. The information exchange offered by Tpas will be a big help.
The whole ethos of the TMO movement is that people who actually live on estates or in other social housing properties have a greater awareness of what their needs are than policy makers ever could. Meger plans between Circle and Affinity Sutton will mean that Glebe Court will become a very small part of a large organisation and it wants to ensure that their needs and existence is not overlooked. It believes Tpas will help to ensure that thier voice continues to be heard.
Tenant engagement is at the very heart of Tenant Management Organisations. Whilst Glebe Court has to carefully budget for the delivery of services and some may take things for granted other estates regularly say how much they would like to have the same service in their area. The opportunity to comment, at the very least on services received should be central to any decisions within the social housing sector.