Agenda item

Report of the Director of Placemaking and Housing. To be introduced by the Cabinet Member for Housing Services, Private Renters, and Planning.

The report will consider the existing resident engagement structure. This will be to ensure that resident involvement is not weakened and expertise, relationships, etc are maintained.

The Cabinet Member for Housing Services, Private Renters, and Planning introduced the report which sought approval to maintain the existing channels for engagement for tenants and leaseholders of the Council. These ensured that tenants and leaseholders were able to actively participate in the work of the Council, as their landlord, and hold the Council to account. It was noted that the administration had an explicit commitment to co-production and to increasing the voice of all residents. Final proposals were being taken forward on how resident engagement would be added to the Council’s decision-making structure to ensure even greater participation and broader and more representative engagement.

In response to questions from Cllr Connor, the following was noted:

• Noted that the resident engagement groups concerned putting residents at the heart of decision making and there would be wider proposals on this objective coming forward later in the year. However, the Customer Core group did feed into the Council’s decision making, through the directorate currently, and the residents on this group were engaged and determined to have their voice heard.

• The Council would continue to publish housing provision targets and its performance against it targets. The recommendations of the Housing Resident Advisory Panel [ formally Tenants Scrutiny Panel] would be published on the website and the Council’s scrutiny function would be able be ask for these recommendations to come forward to the Housing and Regeneration Scrutiny Panel and Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

RESOLVED

1.    To note and approve the interim resident engagement proposals detailed in paragraph 6.13 of the report.

2.    To note that final resident engagement proposals will be brought forward later this municipal year, including proposals for engaging with the Council’s tenants and leaseholders.

3.    To note that proposals for further involving residents in the Council’s decision-making process continue to be developed and that, if any changes are proposed to the Council’s Committee structures, they will be developed in consultation with Members prior to being recommended to Standards Committee, and then to Full Council.

Reasons for decision

It is crucial that social tenants and leaseholders are able to have clear channels of communication with their landlord, to have their voices heard and for social landlords to have clearly set out method to listen to their tenants and leaseholders and respond to their concerns. With the insourcing of housing services, it is important to ensure that the involvement of tenants and leaseholders in the management of their homes is not weakened; and indeed that tenants and leaseholders have both a strong voice and that all participation processes are representative of the broader tenant and leaseholder population.

Alternative options considered

One option was to rethink at this stage the relationship between the Council and its tenants and leaseholders. This was discounted to allow for broader work on the Housing Strategy and the Council’s approach to resident participation to be carried out, and to ensure that any change from the current model was considered carefully and with the involvement of tenants, leaseholders and Members.

Another option was to directly involve tenants and leaseholders in the Council’s decision making. This was discounted at this stage, and if it is taken forward would be a decision for the Council’s Standards Committee to recommend to Full Council.