Feedback following our Tpas Tenant Conference 2024 from Involved Residents
Monday 2nd of September 2024
The Tpas conference started off with Tpas CEO Jenny Osbourne MBE giving a talk about the newly elected government and hopes for the housing sector, as a result of the PM.
Jack Smith Regulatory Assistant Director Assessment and Tenant Engagement RSH then spoke about tenant engagement and how important it is for collaboration to achieve customer standards. RSH have already assessed 70 landlords and expected to do all within 4 years. Five providers failed assessments in one day. Landlords commit to time frames for an improvement plan and Scrutiny panels will be able to hold landlords to account if that change isn’t happening.
Ibby Ismail who is an involved resident and board member talked about the tragedies that have had to happen before tenants' voices were heard. Ibby says RSH is serious about resident engagement. Ibby gave some good ideas of reaching residents for engagement by getting a vehicle specifically used to go to the resident at convenient times right for the resident, and use a face to face approach.
We learnt that the biggest problems with engagement were:
- Individual needs and pleasing everyone
- Culture
- Housing officers and engagement
- Learning during 4 workshops
Hearing what other housing providers were getting wrong made us see what EMH are doing right to change, and this seems to be changing faster than some providers. A few ideas came to us of our own to get involvement from the right residents. These were:
● Getting younger children involved through inviting schools locally to
allow sessions held for 14-16 yrs as these will be some of the future
residents
● Free online learning for 16-30 yr olds
We also looked at social media advantages and disadvantages and how algorithms affect views and interactions. The highest volume of residents engagement through platform was surprisingly Whatsapp. This could be looked at instead of email or messenger.
Most of the HA’s with the most resident engagement are those who put something on in the community which benefit their residents. The other was to go to the resident face to face.
We had a really great time and met some very like minded people!
Hope you like our blog.
Leanne Peat and Amanda Jacob - Involved Residents