The Tenant Services Authority (TSA) the new regulatory body for Social Housing across England, have published the Regulatory Framework on Tuesday 16th March. This framework sets out the standards that providers are expected to meet in relation to service delivery and tenant empowerment and involvement from 1st April 2010.

February 2010 saw the publication of the Sir Michael Marmot's Strategic Review of Health Inequalities in England post 2010. It was commissioned in November 2008 by the Secretary of State for Health to propose the most effective evidence based strategies for reducing health inequalities in England from 2010.

The Northern Housing Consortium welcomes the Governments new strategy for Household Energy Management "Warmer Homes, Greener Homes". The strategy sets out key actions that should result in achieving a reduction of 29% in carbon emissions by 2020. The strategy sets out ambitions including:

Financial Inclusion is very high up on the government agenda, and it is an area of work that the Northern Housing Consortium is focusing on under their 'social inclusion' policy theme. There are a high number of people living in the social housing tenure that have considerably lower household incomes than other tenures,

Meeting the challenges and delivering positive outcomes. Working in the context of rising demand and increased pressure on budgets and funding there is a need for providers to think creatively and be innovative in their approach to providing adaptations.

An exciting opportunity has arisen for a Procurement Manager to lead on collaborative procurement. Ideally, CIPS qualified, we are looking for an experienced individual to carry out the formal competitive tendering of large scale framework contracts.

With the changing demographic profile across the UK, providing solutions that can improve the quality of life in tenant's homes is a priority for our Members.

The Office of the Third Sector developed a government wide Social Enterprise Action Plan in 2006, following on from this the Communities and Local Government (CLG) published the Community Enterprise Strategic Framework on the 10th February; this document sets out the government's commitments and direction of travel to support the community enterprise sector.

Mental health and wellbeing are intrinsically linked to housing and there has been a clear government message and realisation that bad housing leads to bad health.

The Tenant Services Authority (TSA) published their consultation: A new regulatory framework for social housing in England, in November 2009. This consultation sets out TSA's new approach to regulation of the social housing sector.

Asbestos update; Are you aware of recent changes to asbestos management regulation and how they may affect your organisation? From February 2010 The HSE guidance notes relating to asbestos management have been changed to Asbestos The Survey Guide (HSG264). In summary, Type 1, 2 &3 surveys no longer exist and have been replaced by management survey & refurbishment and demolition surveys.