National Housing Federation launches Together with Tenants programme

The National Housing Federation is launching a new programme to help build stronger relationships between housing associations and their tenants.

Together With Tenants sets out a plan of action to ensure boards are always properly connected and accountable to the people they house, whilst also giving tenants and residents a strong role in scrutiny.

The National Housing Federation is asking tenants and residents to share their thoughts on the proposal, and to join a new independent Tenant Advisory Panel.

The programme proposes four actions:

• A new requirement in the National Housing Federation Code of Governance for boards to be accountable to their tenants and residents;

• A new ‘Together with Tenants’ Charter setting out what tenants and residents can expect from their housing association landlord;

• Tenant and resident oversight and scrutiny of the Charter with a report on how their landlord is doing against the Charter commitments, and;

• A closer link with regulation.

Housing associations already have a long-standing commitment to engaging with tenants and residents. However, the public conversation following the tragic fire at Grenfell Tower exposed differences in how people felt about their relationship with their social housing landlord.

In response, over the last 15 months the National Housing Federation has held conversations and workshops with housing associations and their tenants to better understand the challenge and develop this set of proposals.

43 housing associations have already signed up to be early adopters of the proposals.

Kate Henderson, Chief Executive of the National Housing Federation says:

“This plan builds on good practice in the sector, and must also be the first steps towards meaningful change. I am delighted that as of today 43 housing associations have already signed up to test the commitments and I hope that many more will follow suit.

“We know that for this plan to work we need to design it with tenants and residents. This is why we’ve been working closely with them throughout the process, and are now urging tenants to share their thoughts on these proposals.”