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Tenant charity to fold amid strain on reserves
Tenant charity TAROE Trust will close down at the end of the month following long-running financial woes.
The charity, formed in 2013, said it has experienced “reducing levels of reserves” as it has provided services free of charge to tenants living within the regulated housing sector in a challenging operating environment.
Michael Gelling, chair of TAROE, said: “This is a really sad day for me, the charity itself, and most of all for the wider tenant movement.
“For many years we have continued to support tenants to amicably resolve issues with their landlord whilst also engaging with all the major sector consultations.”
TAROE has struggled with financial pressures for a number of years, and Mr Gelling warned in 2015 that the charity faced the prospect of closure.
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The decision to register as a charity in 2013 was initially taken to plug funding gaps in what was then known as the Tenants’ and Residents’ Organisations of England (TAROE). At the time Mr Gelling said that TAROE needed to raise £150,000 to survive.
Mr Gelling said: “The organisation, which was proudly tenant led and tenant owned, acknowledges the many tenants who have been involved with us on a voluntary basis, the first-class staff it has employed who selflessly supported the aims and objectives of placing tenants at the heart of all decision-making within the sector, and the few housing professionals who gave their expertise and time to promote the value of tenants in all decision-making processes.”
He added that following the closure there will be no national-level body that will promote the interests of tenants directly from the tenants’ perspective.
“This is a real shame, and a gap that we hope will one day be addressed,” he added.
