Getting involved

There is a range of opportunities to get involved in running your estate, which allows tenants and leaseholders to discuss housing-management and associated issues. You can get involved in:

developing the council’s housing strategy
setting budgets and rent
housing and letting policies
antisocial behaviour policies
housing-management services and estate maintenance
major repairs and rebuilding programmes
selecting and monitoring contractors
equality and diversity policies
environmental and major repairs allowance (MRA), and
selecting and recruiting staff

Apart from joining a Tenants and Residents Association, we also offer other opportunities for you to get involved, including:

the Estate Stakeholders scheme, and
the Black and Multi-Ethnic Tenants Housing Forum

The Estate Stakeholders scheme allows up to two representatives from a small estate, block, or area to become involved in day-to-day maintenance checks and inspections. Estate Stakeholders are managed by our estate services team and play a vital role in helping us meet our service standards and protect the environment.

The Black and Multi-Ethnic Tenants Housing Forum helps encourage all ethnic groups to become involved in the community and in Tenants and Residents Associations.

Young people are often excluded from the local community so we are developing a new youth involvement strategy that will encourage young people to play a part in the community. This will include:

music workshops
sixth-form work-experience placements
summer projects, and
football teams

Tenants and Residents Associations

As an association, groups of tenants and leaseholders meet to discuss issues about the estate or block in which they live. To support each Tenants and Residents Association, we provide a stationery pack that includes:

headed paper
stamps
envelopes
pens
pencils, and
lined pads

As an executive committee member of the association, you would also be provided with photo ID cards to help you carry out your business around the estate. We also offer financial support in the form of grants to help with costs such as phone calls, hall hire and refreshments. Individuals receive expenses for going to meetings.

We also offer training to association members in areas such as chairing meetings, diversity and equality, and leaflet and publicity design. We also provide a training manual that explains the role of members, tips for fundraising and how to manage the finances of the Tenants and Residents Association.