Member Firm Consultation (Spring 24)

These planned updates are designed to strengthen TPI's offering to Member Firms and uphold the commitment to building safety and customer service standards. They also seek to ensure Member Firms are well-placed for any future introduction of statutory regulation in residential block management, which TPI is seeking from the new Government. The changes are now known collectively as ‘Programme Enhance’, reflecting the overall objective of these inter-related enhancements to TPI's offering to Member Firms.

TPI would like to thank those who took the time to respond to the consultation earlier this year and share their views on the proposals. Informed by feedback received from a representative cross-section of over 30 Member Firms, TPI has identified a clear way forward for each of the proposed changes.

The primary focus areas are:

Member Firm Audit Revisions
 TPI received a positive response to the proposed refresh to the Member Firm audit as outlined in the consultation. However, TPI recognises from the consultation responses the importance of providing targeted feedback to individual Member Firms on any issues arising from an audit. These changes will be reflected in a revised TPI Guide to Audit, which will be published in the autumn, with the revised Member Firm audit methodology coming into effect from 1 January 2025.

ETHICS
As outlined in the consultation, TPI proposes to introduce additional questions in the annual renewal 2025 form to assess the current professional and ethical behaviour of Member Firms. These questions are being refined to reflect consultation responses, ensuring alignment where possible with the RICS approach to ethical and professional behaviour, mindful that some Member Firms are also RICS-regulated firms. TPI anticipates retaining these additional questions for subsequent annual renewals, using ‘by exception’ reporting to avoid unnecessary duplication of information supplied by Member Firms. More immediately, in autumn 2024, TPI will publish new guidance on ethical and professional standards with examples to illustrate good practice, to showcase and encourage widespread and consistent compliance by Member Firms.

VOLUNTARY ENHANCEMENTS
The consultation responses indicated a great deal of support for measuring a firm’s approach to safety and well-being, but some firms cautioned that they are adjusting to many wider industry changes and new legislation all at once, and have limited capacity to embrace all the enhancements simultaneously. While it is right to strive for continuous improvement, TPI understands individual firms need to do so at their own pace. Therefore, the new enhancements on safety and well-being will be introduced on a voluntary basis for the time being, with firms being given the necessary tools to self-assess and improve, and to access further support from TPI as appropriate. This approach will also inform how TPI further improves and enhances these tools in the future.

WELLBEING
 TPI recognises from the consultation responses the need to prevent the annual renewal process from becoming unnecessarily burdensome. Therefore, TPI now proposes to add just a handful of questions on wellbeing to the annual renewal 2025 form. These questions will only need to be answered by firms voluntarily adopting the Wellbeing Standard. These additional questions will help gauge the extent to which the standard is being adopted and the drivers/barriers to uptake. The proposed Wellbeing Standard will be included in TPI's Consumer Charter and Standards for adoption on a voluntary basis from 1 January 2025 as outlined in the earlier consultation. Ahead of these changes to the annual renewal 2025, TPI plans to publish new guidance on the Wellbeing Standard in autumn 2024 to help Member Firms manage the wellbeing of their staff.

BUILDING SAFETY SELF-EVALUATION SCHEME
This scheme will be available to firms that wish to understand their own progress in meeting the competence requirements now expected of building managers. Alongside the self-evaluation, there will be targeted guidance to help close gaps in their knowledge and capability. A pilot scheme will run in autumn 2024 with around ten Member Firms who have kindly volunteered to participate. Based on the evaluation of this pilot in winter 2024, TPI will determine how to roll out the scheme more widely. Those firms who have volunteered to take part in the pilot scheme will be contacted directly in September.

What happens next?

TPI will continue to keep Member Firms informed of developments in the coming autumn as new and revised guidance is published on the different focus areas outlined above. Additionally, TPI will be seeking views on proposed revisions to the existing TPI Consumer Charter and Standards, and a proposed new TPI Customer Service toolkit. This further ‘Programme Enhance’ consultation is anticipated to go live from 1 October 2024 and run for four weeks.