The Royal Borough of Greenwich has put forward plans to create a new Tenant Influence and Oversight Panel (TIOP) that will give council tenants a stronger voice in decisions that affect them.
The proposed new panel would reflect recent ways that tenants have told us about how they would like to become more involved, hold the council to account and have greater influence over the decisions that are made in council housing.
It is one of many new ways the council is engaging with residents as outlined in the council’s Housing Resident Engagement Policy; and supports new regulatory requirements on how social landlords should look to engage with tenants in the Regulator of Social Housing’s Consumer Standards.
Cllr Pat Slattery, Cabinet Member for Housing Management, Neighbourhoods and Homelessness, said:
"We have around 20,000 council homes in Greenwich and we want to make sure we’re really listening to what tenants tell us; to have greater abilities to scrutinise the services that they pay rent for and shape the policies and strategies that affect their day-to day lives.
"Our proposed new tenant panel would put us at the forefront of local authorities in how we involve tenants in our housing services. It would be fully led by our tenants and would sit alongside our existing and already well-attended Borough Wide Housing Panel, giving tenants a stronger voice in how we manage their council homes.
“In addition, we would like to introduce a new range of events and awareness activities on some of our housing estates so that a diverse range of needs can be reflected in the work of the panel.”
If agreed by Cabinet and Council on 18 March, the Tenant Influence and Oversight Panel would be one of a series of panels set up to replace Local Housing Panels, which were first set up in 2000 to mirror a structure of local housing neighbourhood offices, which no longer exists. Since then, those panels have seen dwindling attendance numbers, and many are no longer active.
Based on research and engagement held with current tenants, TPAS (nationally regarded tenant engagement experts) will help to support a new system of governance for the panel, including the recruitment of a Chair and Vice Chair, as well as training for all new panel members.