Housing law in England gives council tenants and leaseholders a collective right to take on the management of the council housing where they live. This may happen when a local tenant group believe that they could provide a better or more cost-effective service, like arranging repairs or estate cleaning if they were to have direct control of the money that the council spends on that service. When tenants join together to manage their own homes, they set up a ‘tenant management organisation’. Tenant management organisations, in different shapes and sizes, have been managing council housing around the country for nearly fifty years.
There are safeguards built into the law to make sure that a tenant group can only take on housing management functions if they have the support of the other tenants in the homes and if they can show they have the skills and knowledge. The Right to Manage has been improved over time to make the process quicker and less complex for tenants who want to set up a tenant management organisation.
Additionally, council tenants and leaseholders have the right to voluntarily transfer ownership of all or some council tenanted and leasehold homes to another private registered provider in return for a payment for the value of that stock to the council.
As with the Right to Manage, the Right to Transfer is still subject to existing legislation on stock transfers. The transfer cannot go ahead unless a majority of secure and introductory tenants of the homes in question vote in favour in a ballot organised by the local authority and the Secretary of State has granted consent.