• More of the same.
• Quicker answers to queries (and can we accept e-mail and telephone calls?)
• Some unreasonable expectations (such as a 24 hour legal help line, pay for advertising.)
Concluding that we seek to improve services to members we will:
• Make more use of technology – while not losing the personal touch – website development most obvious example.
• We now accept e-mail and telephone queries – albeit with some qualifiers – (not too long or legalistic e-mails and if telephoning please do so in the morning).
• Maintain and hopefully improve standard of Newsletter. Brighten up appearance as will probably always be a heavy read – especially while government continues with heavy handed legislation.
• Perhaps we all (that is the Committee and our members) need to update our thinking.
• Members need to remember that work is largely done by unpaid volunteers.
On the business side our objectives are:
• To get our finances on a sounder and continuing stable footing.
• To further update and improve our systems.

I mentioned earlier heavy handed legislation. The problem is politicians who come out with good intentions (that in principle we probably agree with – like improving the bottom end of the rental market) reduced to brief sound-bites that will get the media’s attention. Then, mission accomplished, they move on leaving the details to the civil servants who with insufficient direction make it up as best they can. With sensible well intentioned civil servants – willing to listen to those actually involved – then the results can be OK example: the Tenants Deposit Protection Scheme. But in other instances – such as the Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs) legislation – all too often they appear simply out of touch with the real world.

FPRA will continue to campaign on issues affecting leaseholders. We had a light touch on HIPs as only affected those actually selling. We take a stronger stance on digital TV as this – technically rather complicated issue – affects all households. Our message to the government and Digital UK is keep the message simple and keep it accurate. You have done a magnificent job in communicating the coming of digital TV with over 90 per cent awareness and over 80 per cent have already made the change. But you remain strangely reticent about FREEVIEW which remains the backbone of free-to-air broadcasting (largely via the TV licence funding) and must be strengthened with capacity for high definition TV. The claim that Digital UK must be platform neutral must not mean government being platform naive.

Satellite and cable companies are commercial enterprises that can, and are, advertising and promoting themselves. So move forward the analogue switch-off dates, strengthen the FREEVIEW signal and introduce High definition on FREEVIEW as soon as possible. Let’s not live with the misleading – and frankly less than accurate – statement on BBC TV prior to the England v Russia game that it was also available on BBC High Definition TV. Only true if you had Sky and pay subscriptions.

I stress that FPRA is non-political and totally accepts that an elected government has the right to bring forward legislation it believes is right. All we ask is that government listens to organisations such as FPRA who can help on predicting how it will actually work in the real world. And it is vital that our political masters do live in the real world. Too much housing legislation is apparently based on hopelessly out-dated concepts. It often seems that the syndrome “All landlord/freeholders are rogues and all tenants/leaseholders have halos over their heads” has been the guiding light of successive Housing Ministers, hence, for example, the section 166 form from the 2002 (CLRA) to be sent with ground rent demands which effectively explains that if a leaseholder withholds payment of service charges of up to £350 for up to three years – then they will probably get away with it.

We now have the statements of rights that must be sent with all service charge demands from the end of this month. I noted with interest that an article on this in the property press was titled “10 ways to avoid paying your service charge”.

Government seems to be unaware that increasingly freeholders and leaseholders are the same people – helped by the good legislation that has progressively made it easier for leaseholders to acquire their freeholders or the right to manage. So we have the dichotomy of government encouraging enfranchisement while simultaneously effectively disenfranchising leaseholders who have.

Never-the-less, as I mentioned earlier, much legislation starts out as well intentioned and if it can stay on track then this is progress. FPRA stands ready to work with government and other organisations to help achieve more sensible best practice legislation.

Address given by John Peartree at FPRA AGM. For more information on FPRA see www.fpra.org.uk
Chief Executive
Federation of Private Residents Assn