News from the Residential Property Investor, the bi-monthly magazine for RLA members other artilces from the August / September 2003 issue RPI news archive

Urgent improvement needed to National Asylum Support Service - August / September 2003

Urgent improvement is needed to the operational performance and standards of customer care at the National Asylum Support Service, an independent review has concluded.

The service, which oversees housing and other asylum issues, 'needs to get better at working with its partners and stakeholders, and much slicker at sorting out basic processing errors especially when these affect individual asylum seekers and damage the reputation of the organisation', said the review.

NASS needs to strengthen its management capacity at all levels and to have a realistic three year budget to work to, with flexibility to respond quickly to changing circumstances and opportunities without over elaborate bureaucratic processes.

Meanwhile the purpose, aims and role of NASS should be clarified and reaffirmed by Ministers who should make sure the service has 'a realistic remit and the necessary resources and political support to do that job'.

'NASS has begun to show signs of improvement in its operational performance, strategic planning and relationships with partner organisations', said Immigration Minister Beverley Hughes.

'Regional offices have been established across the country to enable NASS to work more closely with local agencies to better understand and respond to the needs of communities as part of their work.

'I am determined that this review should not be simply a paper exercise and have asked NASS for an action plan to set out how it intends to take forward the other recommendations in the review'.

• Over 2m new homes could be needed in the next 20 years just to house immigrants, the newly established, independent, think tank Migrationwatch UK is warning. Government plans assume net immigration of 65,000 a year but the figure of legal immigrants has recently trebled, said the organisation. As a result the number of new homes required and the infrastructure needed have been seriously underestimated. The result could be a significant movement of population away from overcrowded areas in the South East to other parts of the country ­ with consequential increases in property prices.

other artilces from the August / September 2003 issue

• Accreditation the way forward
• Licensing should be 'unfettered'
• Avoiding unnecessary electrical shocks
• Renting is 'more acceptable' choice
• Opposition to HB penalty plan
• House prices continue to climb
• Landlord faces retrial over killing
• In brief
• Tenant wins right to set off
• Work / live development rules too rigid
• Urgent improvement needed to National Asylum Support Service