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The
Herefordshire Tenants' Federation is a county-wide tenant group that has been
set up to represent tenants' interests. It works alongside Herefordshire Housing
on matters relating to tenants' housing and neighbourhoods. It is made up of
elected tenant representatives from Herefordshire Housing's recognised Tenant
Groups.
Its role includes:
• listening
to the views of tenants;
• representing
these views to Herefordshire Housing;
• participating
in decision-making processes (relevant to housing) used
by Herefordshire Housing;
• working
in partnership with Herefordshire Housing to decide upon future plans for housing
services;
• encouraging
and supporting tenants in general to actively participate in matters concerning
their local housing and environment;
• providing
information to tenant groups.
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It
is the responsibility of the Tenants' Federation to consult regularly
with its membership and ensure that, as far as possible, the views it
presents to Herefordshire Housing clearly reflect those of the tenants
it represents.
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IF NOT THROUGH THE HEREFORDSHIRE TENANTS FEDERATION, WHAT OTHER WAYS ARE THERE FOR TENANTS TO BE INVOLVED?
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HEREFORDSHIRE HOUSING MEANS BY 'INVOLVEMENT' There are 4 different ways we can involve tenants: Informing (us and them) We inform tenants what we think and what we are going to do. Consulting (us and them) We ask tenants for their views about what we are planning to do, listen to what you say and make changes if we think it appropriate. Involving (us and them) We tell tenants that we are planning to do 'something' and invite them to help us decide how we can do that 'something'. Participating (we) Together with the tenants we find out whether there is 'something' that needs doing, what we are going to do about it, and how, together, we are going to go about doing it. |
The process of Tenant Participation will mean that eventually tenant representatives will be playing a key role in the decisions taken about major housing matters. These include how properties are allocated to tenants, how rents are set, how repair and maintenance programmes are prioritised, and how the Housing Services budget is spent.
Therefore we need to think really carefully about how to enable as many tenants as possible to become informed and effective participants and decision makers.
All tenants must be kept well informed about anything related to housing services, consulted about matters that affect their homes and neighbourhoods; be given credible and feasible opportunities for involvement, and be encouraged and enabled to participate.
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Both
Herefordshire Housing and the Tenants' Federation recognise the need to
find ways to include in decision-making processes those tenants for whom
membership of a Herefordshire Housing-recognised group is not an option,
and who are therefore not represented by the Herefordshire Tenants' Federation.
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HEREFORDSHIRE HOUSING ALREADY INVOLVES SOME TENANTS WHO ARE NOT MEMBERS OF HEREFORDSHIRE HOUSING'S RECOGNISED TENANTS' GROUPS:
• Tenant
Testers -
a group of tenants (currently about 150) who have agreed to give feedback on
the leaflets and other information housing Services put out. They are occasionally
asked to participate in things like focus groups. If you would like to become
a Tenant Tester, please contact the Customer
Involvement & Communication Team
on (01432) 384010 or the Herefordshire Tenants Federation on (01432)
379077
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"A
really good starting point! Our aim is to ensure that tenants have a real
say in the way services are developed and delivered. it's only by working
together in partnership that we will begin to make a difference"
(Comments from a member of staff, Housing Services Division) |
TENANT INVOLVEMENT IN THE FUTURE COULD INCLUDE THINGS SUCH AS:
• a process of consultation about planned maintenance programmes that could begin with Tenant Federation members participating in setting priorities, and end with discussion with those tenants who are actually going to be affected by the maintenance work;
• regular consultation - possibly with focus groups - about Herefordshire Housing's estate management service to find out what is important to tenants;
• regularly involving tenants in any review of the allocation policy (this is already beginning to happen);
• local joint meetings/focus groups called by either Herefordshire Housing or tenants to deal with specific issues as they occur (e.g. instances of anti-social behaviour);
• more localised 'drop-in' centres (or a mobile one) supported by Herefordshire Housing, organised by tenant volunteers.
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Tenant
Participation Compacts currently only cover the activities of the Housing
Services Division. However, the Government legislation that brought them
into being see's them developing to cover other Herefordshire Housing
services that affect tenants, such as the maintenance of green areas,
or dealing with noise nuisance. So one of the things we need to do is
discover what other services tenants feel they would like the Compact
to cover.
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WE ARE ALSO AWARE THAT THIS IS JUST THE START OF A LONG TERM PROCESS THAT REQUIRES PATIENCE AND DETERMINATION AS WELL AS INNOVATIVE THINKING: AND THAT:
• there needs to be a built-in process that lets those who have been consulted know whether or not their views have actually influenced final decisions (which are taken by Herefordshire Housing); and
• if we are serious about encouraging and supporting tenant participation we need to find out what forms of 'consultation and involvement' tenants themselve think would work best, and actively involve them to be responsive recipients of these exercises! This could be done by setting up an initial 'focus' group with the specific intent of brainstorming, exploring and identifying 'workable' ideas. Each idea could then be tested out on wider groups of tenants.
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One
of the challenges facing all of us involved in tenant participation is
that tenant participants are always volunteers. Many who would like to
be more actively involved are either not able to find the time, or do
not find themselves in a position to meet the additional costs (no matter
how small) that committment to participation sometimes requires. This
means that the bulk of the work falls upon a very small number of individuals.
Herefordshire Housing recognises the need to discover more ways of making
'participation' as worthwhile as possible for a wide range of tenants.
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If
you have any ideas about what would make it worthwhile for you to become involved,
or how you would like to be involved - whether you think them "plain common-sense-so-surely-they're-doing-it-already"
'utterly brilliant' 'over the top' or 'plain impossible' get in touch with the
Customer
Involvement & Communication Team at Herefordshire Housing Ltd
(01432) 384010
or the Herefordshire Tenants' Federation on (01432) 379077 (answerphone for
out of hours)
To
contact the Herefordshire Tenants Federation
The
Tenants Federation Office is situated at;
49a Widemarsh Street
Hereford, HR4 9EA.
Telephone 01432 379077
Fax: 01432 379077
E-mail address: federation@herefordshiretenants.co.uk
To contact the Customer
Involvement & Communication Team at Herefordshire Housing Ltd
Tel: (01432) 384010
Helen Greenway (Customer Involvement & Communcation Manager)
Email:
hgreenway@herefordshirehousing.org.uk
Susana
Piohtee (Community Liaison Officer)
spiohtee@herefordshirehousing.org.uk
Sarah
James (Customer Involvement officer)
Email: sjames@herefordshirehousing.org.uk
The Webmaster
Email: webmaster@herefordshiretenants.co.uk
The Herefordshire Tenants Federation
Email: federation@herefordshiretenants.co.uk
The links below are to pages on this website: