A quiet revolution is happening around tenant influence

The most obvious policy impact of the Grenfell Tower fire, now four years ago, is on the Building Safety Bill. There’s still a lot to be done, but we’re feeling positive about the expected requirements for resident engagement.

We’ve been working with our members to learn from their good practice, and bring together some guidance for organisations in the ‘accountable person’ role. And the new Building Safety Regulator is another sector body that’s going to be hearing directly from tenants, with a resident panel planned to include residents of all kinds. It’s great to see so much of the change in the sector being opened up to tenants’ and residents’ views.

There’s no denying that we’re still disappointed at the lack of progress on a national voice for tenants, though. It was a big omission from the white paper, as was the lack of any actual ideas about how government could start to tackle the stigma that still affects so many social housing tenants.

It seems like there’s some kind of disconnect regarding stigma and the constant promotion of homeownership. It was frustrating that the white paper – The Charter for Social Housing Residents – included that final chapter on homeownership. After the positive words of the preceding chapters, it felt like a bit of a slap in the face, as if being a tenant was some kind of failure. We’d have liked to hear more about social housing in the Queen’s Speech as well, although it wasn’t a surprise that the focus was more on other areas.

Overall, though, there’s been a lot of progress, which has been particularly welcome in recent weeks, as phase two of the Grenfell Inquiry has been reminding us just how catastrophic it can be to ignore the voices of tenants and residents.

Where landlords had cut budgets in response to the one per cent rent settlement in 2015, lots are now investing in resident engagement ahead of consumer regulation. It’s taken a while to get here, four years from Grenfell, but we’ve come a long way from when the Tenant Services Authority was deemed “toast”.

Although lockdown has been tough, we’ve learned a lot. And it looks like there are plenty of opportunities to use our new skills, to support tenants and their landlords and show politicians and policymakers what we’re made of.

The headlines may be all about new ways to do homeownership, but there’s a quiet revolution going on in terms of resident influence. The days of silencing tenants’ voices need to be put well and truly behind us.

Jenny Osbourne, chief executive, Tpas