ARCH AND TENANT INVOLVEMENT

The ARCH Tenants' Group

ARCH is keen to reflect the views of people who live in council homes in its internal decision-making and its external lobbying.

The association recruited Marlene Price, who lives in the London Borough of Wandsworth, as resident representative on its board when it was first established and Mrs Price set up the Tenants’ Group and is one of its members.

The Group is a regional network of tenant representatives from ARCH member authorities across England. The sub-group held its inaugural meeting in November 2008 and its quarterly meetings since have been well attended.

The Association of Public Service Excellence (APSE) supports ARCH in facilitating the Tenant’s Group. The sub-group has fed its views into the national review of housing finance, Tenant Services Authority proposals and other key issues affecting the sector. It shaped the contents of the last two ARCH annual tenants’ and residents’ conferences and was highly instrumentally in organising the successful 2010 event in Birmingham.

The ARCH Tenants’ Group is a sub-group of the ARCH executive board, which comprises local authorities elected at the association’s AGM (see the 'about ARCH' page on this site for details). The chair of the sub-group is the resident representative on the ARCH executive board and acts as a liaison point between the two. Executive board minutes and sub-group minutes are shared between the two entities via the members’ only area on the association’s website, to which sub-group members have access. Residents have been recruited from across England to ensure the ARCH Tenants’ Group fully reflects ARCH’s regional structure.

Tenants’ Group Chair

The ARCH Tenants Group elected Jennifer Holmes as chair at its Annual General Meeting in London on 21st March.

Mrs Holmes lives in a council home in West Lancashire and was previously vice-chair of the Tenants’ Group. She will now chair the Group, represent tenants on the Executive Board and ensure the views of people who live in council properties are reflected in ARCH policies and activities. She commented: ‘I am delighted to have been elected. As tenants’ representatives, we want to bring forward views on issues tenants tell us are concerning them at this difficult time. We are proud to live in stock retained homes and will work closely with the ARCH Executive Board to fight for the best deal for people who have chosen their council as their landlord.’

The ARCH Tenants’ Group AGM was followed by a joint meeting with the Executive Board. This provided an opportunity for tenants’ representatives and executive members to share information. Topics covered included; the forthcoming tenants’ conference, future organisational plans and possible constitutional amendments.

Profile

Jennifer Holmes brings a wealth of experience to this role. Following a professional career as a civil servant, she took early retirement due to ill health.  She says: ‘I became involved with community issues following my retirement because of my anger at how housing and the environment had a profound detrimental effect on the life expectancy of those living in my area. Since then I have worked actively in my community to address these imbalances.’

She is treasurer of her local Tenants' and Residents' Association, a member of the Tenants' Scrutiny Panel, and a Member of the West Lancashire Local Strategic Partnership and the Tenants’ Panel for the Tenants Services Authority.

As well as working voluntarily in the community, Mrs Holmes has her own business as a training consultant and a stress management/ life balance coach. She says: ‘When I got involved with matters concerning social housing I realised that my knowledge was sadly lacking. Luckily I was able to access professional training at Trafford Hall, the National Tenants Resource Centre and I am now an Ambassador for centre and one of its approved training professionals.’

She comments: ‘I have a passion to ensure that tenants of stock retained council housing are not left behind in housing matters and have a clear vision of how the services should be managed. I joined the ARCH tenants’ sub-group in the hope of bringing about change to ensure there is a much better finance system for councils to provide affordable homes in a sustainable way. In my role as vice-chair of the group, I try to use my skills to encourage others to acknowledge the benefits of stock retention in meeting wider local and national priorities and to argue for a better deal for tenants.

‘The next few years are going to be an enormous challenge for all those involved in social housing. It is now vitally important that we face the unknown, with the knowledge that we will work together to create a future for council housing which is fair to all.’

REPORT ON ARCH TEANANTS’ CONFERENCE 2011 - read here