Freedom of Information Act to be extended to TMOs

The government have announced that they intended to extend the Freedom of Information Act (FOI) to TMOs in the future.

To date TMOs have not been covered by the FOI and have not been required to disclose information they hold. In response to the Phase 2 Report into the Grenfell Tower tragedy the government announced the extension as they have decided not to include TMOs in the proposed Social Tenants Access to Information Requirements (STAIRs) provisions. This will now be solely to allow tenants of housing associations to access information held by their landlords. Council tenants were not included because they have the ability to access information using FOI.

The NFTMO had successfully argued that STAIRs should not include TMOs as we believe that there are already enough provisions within the FOI to cover tenants in homes managed by TMOS. The landlord council should already hold information on TMO performance through the monitoring reports TMOs submit quarterly. Additionally, a TMO complain procedure should integrate with the council process so as to allow tenants to challenge performance issues.

We will continue to make this point to government.