Southampton City Council celebrated the launch of its new Tenant Charter and Tenant and Leaseholder Engagement Strategy with a symbolic signing ceremony at the Civic Centre on Wednesday 12 August. Senior council figures, including the Chef Executive Jillian Kay, Director of Resident Services Carol Maclellan, Director of Housing Jamie Brenchley, Cabinet Member for Housing, Councillor Sally Goodfellow, Leader of the Council, Councillor Sarah Bogle and council tenants came together at the event, pledging the full implementation of the new charter and strategy.

The Tenant Charter provides tenants with a clear, actionable list of priorities that the council will do for its tenants. Spanning the whole service, the Tenant Charter aims to positively impact the lives of all tenants by improving the delivery of new homes and services, being honest in its communications with tenants and making it easy for tenants to provide feedback and say when things have gone wrong.

The Tenant Charter compliments the Tenant and Leaseholder Engagement Strategy, approved by Cabinet earlier this year. The strategy was co-created alongside tenants across the city. The council’s Tenant Engagement team utilised focus groups and resident working groups alongside a 12-week city-wide consultation which gathered significant feedback from tenants on how they wanted the strategy to work for them and reflect their voice in the service. Both the charter and strategy will play an integral part in placing residents at the heart of the housing service, a key requirement of the social housing regulator.

The strategy has three main focuses, each of which strengthen tenant participation and decision making in the housing service. These three focuses and their aims are:

• An integral role in decision making – tenants can expect to have meaningful ways to review and challenge the performance of the council as well as having more power to hold the council to account for the decisions it makes
• Effective scrutiny – tenants will be able to review and challenge the council’s performance. Additionally, the council’s actions will be tracked from start to finish ensuring more transparency
• Communication and interaction – the council will be better at gathering, recording and acting on feedback, good and bad and explain what has changed as a result. This ensures that tenants are not only listened to but shown that what they say leads to real change.

Councillor Sally Goodfellow, Cabinet Member for Housing at Southampton City Council said: “This charter serves as a solemn commitment from the council to all of our tenants and leaseholders. The people who live in our homes rightly expect a council who communicates with them honestly, fairly and on an equal level. This will help us become a better landlord and provide our tenants with safe, decent homes along with a landlord service they can trust.”

Kim Ayling, Vice Chairperson of the Tenant Insight Panel said: “Today was an important day for our housing service. I am delighted that the council is addressing the concerns of the Housing Regulator and publicly committing to addressing the needs of tenants and leaseholders in the city. All people who live in council properties deserve a safe, decent place to call home. The Tenant Insight Panel will be measuring the progress of the council over the next couple of years to ensure improvement continues to be made.”