The Government has confirmed plans to extend the Freedom of Information Act 2000 to tenant management organisations (TMOs) in England that deliver housing management services on behalf of local authority landlords.
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) said the move would improve transparency for social housing tenants.
It said the reform formed part of the Government’s wider objective to strengthen tenant empowerment and access to information across the social housing sector.
The measure also delivers on a commitment made in response to the Grenfell Tower Inquiry and follows a consultation process that ended in May this year, MHCLG added.
Commenting on the announcement, Ben Pumphrey, legal director and data governance specialist at Anthony Collins, warned that the reform would introduce additional governance and compliance risks for TMOs.
He noted that local authority tenants living in TMO-managed housing do not currently have the same statutory right of access to information as those living in social housing managed by private registered providers.
"But they can gain information via a FOIA request made to the relevant local authority landlord instead," he said.
He added: "If they do the latter, the TMO would invariably be required to assist the local authority in responding to the request for information. In any case, tenants in homes run by TMOs would usually be able to obtain information about management services directly from the TMO, without making a request of their landlord, as they generally have some degree of involvement in the TMO, which could mean attending AGMs and/or sitting on the TMO board.
“The decision to extend existing FOI legislation to TMOs could in part be driven by a lack of appetite to introduce primary legislation, which would have taken a great deal more parliamentary time. For TMOs, this approach could seem excessive, as it introduces a whole new area of governance and compliance risk to satisfy a need for transparency that arguably doesn’t really exist."
The Government will now make an order under section 5 of the 2000 Act to bring TMOs within the scope of the legislation.
The order, which will specify the housing management services covered by the new requirements, will be laid before Parliament for approval. If approved, the changes are expected to come into force in April 2027.
"The government will continue to work with the TMO sector, local authorities and the Information Commission ahead of implementation to consider what support may be appropriate to help TMOs prepare for the new requirements," MHCLG added.
Pumphrey urged TMOs and local authorities to consider what guidance they would need and share their views with the Information Commission as soon as possible.
"They should also review policies and procedures to ensure access to information requests can be handled efficiently in the future," he said.
