Keith Clancy, one of our Tenant Board Members, has been appointed to a role with the new National Tenant Voice we asked for his thoughts on his new position.

• What role have you been appointed to with the National Tenant Voice?

I have been appointed to the National Tenant Council of the NTV. The Council brings together 50 tenants from around the country, to debate and discuss national policy issues that will affect social housing tenants.  Over 1200 tenants applied to be on the National Tenant Council.

• Please can you explain what the National Tenant Voice is and what they will be doing.  

The National Tenant Voice is a new organisation being set up by the CLG to give social housing tenants in England a voice and influence at national level. It will give a tenants' view on all policy issues that affect tenants, as well as raising with government those issues that affect tenants and need to change.  The National Tenant Council will seek the views of tenants in a variety of ways like regional policy forums, roadshows and on-line forums.  Once set up, the NTV will have a governing Board of 15 people, of which at least 9 will be tenants from the National Tenant Council.

• Are there any specific issues you want to raise as part of your role?

I set out my thoughts and many of the thoughts of Family Mosaic Tenants at the recent Family Mosaic Board Away Day when we the Tenants were invited by Ian Peacock, Chairman of Family Mosaic to present a paper on Tenant Involvement and Community Investment. This paper had real and practical suggestions for more responsibilities to be given to Tenants, for there to be more cooperation built in to policy at Family Mosaic for Tenants to have more say over their properties both inside the home and out.

 I will be pursuing the same line of thinking at NTV level, that is treating Tenants as vibrant inventive people who, if given a steak in their own property and Community, will have a seriously positive effect on improving Housing Association stock as well as creating initiatives in their own Communities. 

My paper is based on this very simple thought, Housing Association staff are in the main in contact with the few people who put themselves forward as active Tenants or contrastingly are in direct contact with Tenants who cause serious disruption, there is a huge untapped maybe 90% that have very little to do with their landlord. It is this 90% of us Tenants who if given the right opportunities to develop our buildings and our Communities will make the real difference.

• What will it mean to other Family Mosaic residents to have a Family Mosaic tenant in your role? 

Though I won't be there specifically to represent Family Mosaics tenants'  views - they will be able to raise issues and experiences with me to take to meetings of the Council. But this shouldn't be instead of them using the other channels set up by the NTV to have their voice heard.

• What does it mean to you to be involved? 

Being an NTV Member will be a huge learning curve. All Members of the NTV are volunteers who have to work very hard to make a significant contribution to the Housing debate. this can be a daunting prospect. Although as volunteers we do not have formal qualifications in the Housing Sector the many years of Housing volunteering amongst the NTV Members and most importantly the experience of being Tenants in Social Housing means that as the end users our experience is invaluable to Government decision making.   

Tenant Inspection Adviser

Cuthbert Jack, long time tenant champion and member of our East London Regional Forum has been appointed by the Audit Commission as a Tenant Inspector.  The Audit Commission is an independent watchdog that checks public services for economy, efficiency and effectiveness.  We asked Cuthbert about his new role:

• What does the role of Tenant Inspector involve? 

I became a Tenant Inspection Adviser as a result of my involvement as a tenant of Family Mosaic Housing Association, having an awareness of the issues affecting social housing tenants across the country and displaying a willingness to further my experience in this area.   As a Tenant Inspection Adviser I am required to be a good and confident communicator, with the ability to encourage and interpret tenant’s opinions while making objective and balanced judgments.  

• How did you get the role? 

Tenant Inspection Advisers team up with Audit Inspectors to carry out inspections on housing associations or Local Authority Housing etc.  During an inspection our responsibilities are varied and include helping to plan the inspection, meeting senior and frontline staff, board members, tenants and representative organizations. 

 In addition, visiting estates and homes, attending focus groups, assisting with phone surveys and mystery shopper exercises, are all important elements of the inspection process as well as recording and agreeing findings, drafting reports, feeding back conclusions and contributing to reviews of the inspection process once it’s over. 

• What does the role mean to you?

I have found all my inspection exercises and experiences to date, very rewarding and I am ideally placed to view things from both sides as a tenant and as an officer, which enables me to have a better understanding of the decision making processes and being more proactive in my involvement with other tenants.