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Stirling Tenants Project: Supporting Tenants to Participate
The Stirling Tenants Project is funded by Stirling Council but managed by The Tenant Participation Advisory Service Scotland (TPAS Scotland) This means that tenants receive support that is independent from the Council and impartial. The Stirling Tenants Project is here to assist the Council in finding new and effective ways to involve tenants in the service and to support tenants to get involved with these in meaningful ways.
What Is Tenant Participation?
A definition Tenant participation is about tenants and landlords working together to improve housing conditions and housing services. Stirling Tenants Project works to ensure that all tenants of Stirling Council can have opportunities and choice to have a say in the decisions that affect: The aim of tenant participation is to improve housing conditions and standards.
Tenants and staff of local authorities and housing associations have developed tenant participation in the way decisions are taken about housing services. This is reinforced by the Housing (Scotland) Act 2001, which places certain requirements on landlords. Commitment to making tenant participation work is the most important factor of all.
Tenant Participation is good for tenants, good for landlords and good for communities. Tenants and communities benefit from the oppotunity to have a say on what is happening to their homes and in their communities; landlords gain from the voluntary input and commitment to lasting solutions.
Happening Now!
The Scottish Government has just begun a consultation exercise that will culminate in the publication of a Scottish Social Housing Charter. This charter will ensure that Social Housing Tenants in Scotland can expect to receive a certain standard of service no matter who their landlord is. In the past the government has been criticised for consulting on already written documents that appear to be a ‘done deal’. This time, however, the Scottish government has been involving people in consultation at an early stage. The document is at present a blank sheet of paper. Landlord representatives, tenants and representatives from other interested groups are being given the opportunity to literally sit round the table with civil servants and politicians and to tell them what they want to see in the charter. Following on from the current round of discussions, a formal discussion paper will be developed that will allow more people to get involved in discussions about what they want to see in the Charter when it is complete. The charter will contain a number of outcomes that landlords must be able to achieve for their tenants. The Scottish Housing Regulator will be responsible for monitoring how well landlords are doing with achieving these outcomes. In order to do this they will develop indicators that will be used to measure the landlord’s effectiveness. These indicators will have to be measurable and it must be possible to compare landlords to each other as well as comparing the landlord’s past standards of service with their current standard in order to note any decline or improvement in service standards. There will be plenty of opportunities for tenants to get involved in shaping the content of the Housing Charter – from taking part in initial discussions to making comment on the discussion paper after the Scottish Government has published it later this year. Stirling Tenants assembly’s annual conference this year will be focussing on the new Charter with representatives from the Scottish Government present. (see box for details) To find out how you can get involved in shaping the future of Housing in Scotland, contact Emma at the Stirling Tenants Project on: 01786 443129 or by e-mail
