If you are a Stirling Council tenant and want to exercise your right to have your say on how the Housing Service is run there are a lot of different ways that you can get involved.

Stirling Tenants Assembly

 As you will have seen on this website Stirling Tenants Assembly is a group of tenants from across the Stirling Council area. Stirling Tenants Assembly host a range of events that any council tenant can attend (see calendar of events on this website) whether a member of the STA committee or not. Any tenant can become a full member of the committee at the Annual General meeting held each year in the Autumn. As the Stirling Tenants Assembly covers the whole of the Stirling Council area they tend to get involved on consultations that will affect ALL tenants and often have guest speakers at meetings so that tenants can find out more about areas of the service. They often spend time discussing policy changes both Stirling Council and the Scottish Government.

Local Tenants Groups

Local Tenants Groups, as you might expect, focus mostly on what is happening in their local areas. They will meet with Council officers and Councillors to ensure that any issues in their area are resolved. Members of local groups can also be members of the Stirling Tenants Assembly, and each Registered Tenants Organisation (the legal name given to recognised groups) is given the opportunity to elect one member of their group to join the Housing Advisory Group.

There may already be a group in your area, get in touch to find out details or check the calendar of events for details of their next meeting. If there is not a group in your area and you think that you would like to start one then get in touch with us at the Stirling Tenants Project and we will try to help you.

 Tenant Voices

Tenant Voices are similar to Local Tenants Groups except that they are just one person who represents their area. These are active in areas where there are not enough tenants to form a group. Your area may have a tenant voice, contact us to find out, or you may wish to volunteer to be one yourself, again just get in touch and we can help.

Surveys and Questionnaires

Stirling Council often use surveys and questionnaires to find out tenants' opinions on the service. These may be the short card you are given after a repair has been carried out on your property, a survey that is in Open Door magazine such as the annual rent survey every Winter or the tenant satisfaction survey that is carried out every three years. Completing surveys such as these is a simple way of getting your experiences (good or bad) and views across to the Council. If enough people say the same thing then the Council will work to make improvements to this area.

If you want to influence Housing Policy at Government level and are an internet user, check out the Housing pages on the Scottish Government website. There will be ongoing consultation and discussion with the Scottish Government on Housing issues and Housing Policy changes. Consultation papers and questionnaires are available on the website to complete and e-mail back in to the Scottish Government.

Tenants Panel

Every landlord in Scotland is required to keep a list of interested tenants called a tenants panel. Tenants on this list are asked to comment on certain proposals, either through paperwork sent to them at home or by invitation to participate in focus groups on a particular topic. If you want to be added to the tenants panel list just ask your Housing officer to add you.

Repairs Group

The ‘Repairs‘ group meets quarterly (see calendar of events for the next scheduled meeting) any tenant is welcome to attend, but please let Stirling Tenants Project know if you wish to attend as soup and sandwiches are provided. The group gives tenants the opportunity to meet with staff from the Technical Services side of the Housing Services and use their experience as customers to guide policy and practice changes.

Tenant Led Inspections

For more information on Tenant Led Inspections see the Tenant Led inspections page on this website.

Comments and Complaints

Stirling Council‘s comments and complaints procedure is called ‘Talkback‘ you can pick up a form from any Council office and if you complete it you are guaranteed a response to your complaint. You can use it to make suggestions too.

 Estate Walkabouts

Are there problem areas in your area? for example areas that are never tidy, overgrown grass areas or broken fencing. You can ask Stirling Tenants Project to organise a walkabout of your area where tenants of the area can show housing staff, councillors and representatives from waste services what and where the problems are. These have proven successful in Raploch, Cornton and Cultenhove.

Housing Advisory Group

The Housing Advisory Group is a Council committee that brings together senior officers, elected members and tenants to make recommendations to full Council about the Housing service. Tenants are elected onto the committee from Registered Tenant Organisations and Tenant Voices.

 Regional Networks

Regional Networks are supported by the Scottish Government‘s ‘Tenant Priorities‘ Team. there are networks covering the whole of Scotland, Stirling is in the Central Region along with Falkirk, Clackmananshire and West Lothian.

Any registered Tenants Organisation in the area can nominate a representative to join the committee. They also hold occasional conferences and seminars that any tenant can attend; particularly when the Scottish Government is looking to consult with tenants on Housing policy issues. Again, see the calendar of events for any up-coming events.