The Social Housing White paper 2020 and Together with Tenants

In November 2020 the Government published the conclusions of its 2018 housing consultation green paper ‘A new Deal for Social Housing’ to address the lessons learnt as a result of the Grenfell Tower Tragedy.

The White paper, which is a statement of government policy, continues a strong focus on health and safety and customer involvement in how we deliver their services. It builds on the themes of a continued strong focus on Health and Safety and placing a greater emphasis on tenant satisfaction, engagement and how we listen to our tenants in the delivery of our services. It presents a charter setting out seven commitments that social housing residents should expect from their landlord. You can view the Charter for Social Housing Residents White Paper by using this link.

In 2019 we became early adopters of the National Housing Federations (NHF) ‘Together with Tenants Plan’.

The plan influenced the detail of the Government’s White Paper and working with Tenant Panel agreed a new GCH Tenant Charter.

We are currently working with Tenant Panel and the GCH Board to review our performance and the 2019 Tenant’s Charter against the requirements of the Social Housing White paper and develop an action plan to ensure we fully comply with all aspects.

You can view the Charter for Social Housing Residents White Paper by using this link

Read our Tenant Engagement Strategy here

GCH has a strong track record of ensuring that tenants are at the heart of what we do and are empowered to challenge, develop and improve our services. We are committed to ensuring that our residents’ voices are heard throughout the organisation via a number of channels: by strong representation on our Board, effective challenge though our Tenant Panel and Challenge and Change scrutiny reviews, ongoing transactional customer surveys, online surveys and focus groups, community roadshows, community investment in existing groups and venues, social media platforms and the day to day interactions between our front line staff and customers. Because we believe that it is essential that tenants and residents have a strong collective voice, we also support the “A Voice for Tenants” steering group and its aim to establish a national body for tenants.

GCH has agreed to be one of the first organisations to test out the Together with Tenants proposal’s 4 point plan once it has been agreed following consultation.

The “Together With Tenants” draft plan includes 4 proposed 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.
A closer link with regulation.

Through the pilot we will share experiences, findings and feedback with our tenants and residents, other housing associations and the National Housing Federation.

Have your say

The most important part of the consultation is to hear what tenants and residents think and The National Housing Federation wants to hear from you.

Click here to complete the Online Survey

To find out more information, participate in an online questionnaire or just get in touch, visit: www.housing.org.uk or call them on 020 7067 1010. If you would like to participate in the survey but need some help please contact us on 01452 424344.