Reporting back: Social Tenant Engagement

I recently received a letter from the Minister of State of Housing and Planning in which he informed me of the events he is holding across England to meet and hear from social tenants to gain a clear picture of their experiences and expectations ahead of the Government’s Green Paper on social housing, which will be published in the spring of next year.

 

The letter mentions that there will be a survey running, which will give those living in social housing right across the country the chance to speak up and have a say in the reshaping of our social housing provision. So if you are a social tenant living in Norwich, please do follow the link I have included below and make your voice heard.

 

www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/tenants2017

 

The Government has identified some key areas within social housing that it would like to focus on in order to achieve the best outcome for tenants, they are:

 

·         managing complaints and redress routes;

·         social tenants’ voices being heard;

·         ensuring good and consistent quality services from landlords; and

·         the safety of tenants

 

The survey will seek to gather information from you including the type of social tenant you are. It will also seek to understand your three main concerns about the social housing provided to you – this also includes the process you underwent to obtain your home. The survey is comprehensive and is detailed in its questioning. You are not obliged to answer any you don’t want to – so you can contribute as much or as little as you would like.

 

Following the tragic events at Grenfell Tower, I wrote to the council and the fire authority to seek their reassurances that council tower blocks in Norwich North were safe to inhabit. Once I received those assurances, I wrote to every single tenant living in Norwich North who was in a council tower block to pass on what the authorities had said.

 

The Government is working hard to ensure that the UK has enough homes and the right homes for people to live in. Over twice as much social housing has been built since the Conservatives came to Government in 2010 than in the previous 13 years. Also, you may be interested to hear the Prime Minister recently announced an extra £2 billion funding for the Government’s 2016-2021 Affordable Homes Programme, increasing it to £9.1 billion, to support the introduction of more new build, social rent housing.

 

There is more to do to ensure we have a properly functioning social housing system, so please do take the time if you can to fill out the survey and have your say.