Joint tenant committee meeting in Leyland

Members of both the RWP and Progress Housing Group tenant committees came together for the first time. RWP tenant representatives Simon, David, and John and RWP colleagues including Les Warren, RWP’s Managing Director, attended the meeting.

It provided the opportunity to share learning and experiences and for members from each committee to get to know each other. Committee members came together to discuss the tenant voice and how we can better listen to and act on the voice of customers with additional needs.

Tenant voice

The RWP tenant committee explained that they would find case studies helpful to understand what action is being taken on the tenant voice. They also discussed the need for in-person surveys, particularly for those with support needs to capture the tenant voice.

Members said that the Consumer Standards are important, but the priority is to do the right thing for tenants. We can learn from complaints, but we should listen to positive feedback on what is being done well. We should consider what EDI indicates about tenant engagement, and whether engagement is often with the same groups. It would be helpful to review tenant engagement and which groups are engaging more. Consider how to reach these other groups. Members proposed looking into holding community chat events for RWP to help reach tenants.

Customer Voice strategy

The aims of the Customer Voice Strategy, including the importance of the strategy considering all needs were discussed. Also, the various ways in which Progress Housing Group, which RWP is part of, listens to the tenant were discussed, which included customer voice, including tenant forums, annual visits, hub groups, the tenant committees, Tenant Satisfaction Measures, and community chats.

Communication and feedback

The ways that support providers are able to communicate and provide feedback was talked about in the meeting. Support providers can use the same ways to communicate as tenants, for example contacting housing managers or via email to log any issues. Members suggested this can become complicated when different people and organisations become involved, for example if the housing manager is employed by another organisation. It was suggested that making sure this process of communication is clear and straightforward would be helpful.

Delivering on the Consumer Standards

A discussion was held on the Group’s ambition to achieve C1 status. C1 is a rating in relation to the Consumer Standards set out by the Regulator for Social Housing (RSH). This would involve the regulator coming in and speaking to tenants, to discuss their experiences of sharing feedback and the responses and actions that take place following this. An insight session for tenant committee members on consumer standards will be planned to share more information on the standards and how Progress Housing Group, which RWP is part of, meets them.

Find out more about the RWP tenant committee: Your tenant committee - RWP