A LOUDER VOICE FOR COUNCIL TENANTS - 23/06/08

Tenants who have voted for their council to be their landlord are being encouraged to get their views across to Government.

The Association of Retained Council Housing (ARCH) has commissioned the Tenant Participation Advisory Service (TPAS) to strengthen involvement of tenants and residents, as it steps up its campaign for fairer housing finance.

One million people live in properties that are owned and managed by local authorities following tenants’ ballots. ARCH argues that council housing does not have a level playing field with other social housing options and wants its tenants to get a better deal.

TPAS is helping ARCH establish a tenants’ sub group, which will mean more people who live in council homes working closely with its executive. The current resident representative on ARCH’s executive, Marlene Price, said: ‘This will give ARCH better access to the opinions of people who have chosen the council as their landlord. I hope that will mean Government listens to ARCH; as a body that represents not just professionals who manage council homes, but also people who live in them.’

ARCH’s secretary, John Bibby, director of housing and community services at Lincoln City Council , added: ‘Making sure ARCH reflects a tenants’ focus in all its work is especially important at a time when the future of social housing is being re-defined. This work by TPAS will give ARCH a firm grounding in tenants’ views, so their voices are heard in the review of the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) that is under way, the work of the new regulator, OFTENANT, and the emerging National Tenant Voice.’

Phil Morgan, chief executive of TPAS, said: ‘TPAS is firmly committed to working with ARCH to promote tenant empowerment: both in terms of supporting tenant involvement with retained council housing in line with the expectations around the forthcoming Tenant Services Authority and to ensure ARCH is able to feed in tenant views into a range of important issues around the HRA and other important policy issues.’