Viewpoint

It seems a simple enough question: how can tenants, landlords and others work together to tackle climate change in our homes and neighbourhoods? More than a million social housing homes in the north of England will need retrofitting to bring them in line with government’s 2050 zero-carbon targets.

Bringing citizen juries to social housing tenants Read More »

Rebecca Hart is a Technical Project Manager at Nottingham City Homes, responsible for the Destination Zero project which is testing an incremental approach to whole house retrofit for social housing providers.
She’s moved from an electrical apprenticeship with Nottingham City Homes to managing large-scale retrofit projects to make the city’s housing stock more energy efficient and push towards its zero-carbon goals.
Here she shares her story and her advice for women considering a career in construction.

Changing Trades: It’s never too late Read More »

Successful tenant engagement transfers absolute power from landlords and shares it with tenants and communities.
Why does this matter? At its simplest, it matters because both sides reap the rewards. Landlords who share decision-making with residents deliver the services residents really want and need; residents get to shape their communities and feel that all-important sense of ownership that feeds into better outcomes for everyone.

Listening to tenants Read More »

28 April 2022
Vantage UAV

The COVID 19 pandemic saw an increase in demand to maintenance and repair work, whilst the ability to respond was restricted and made ever more challenging by a reduced work force and supply chain difficulties.

To navigate this complex web of challenges successfully, the allocation of resources needs to be as efficient as possible. One way to achieve this is through the employment on drones into day-to-day operations.

Why Use drones in the social housing sector? Read More »

For many of us, our home is the foundation on which we build our lives. It should be somewhere safe where we can take refuge from stormy seas. When we lose that refuge – through domestic abuse, unaffordable rents and fear of eviction, or battling unsafe and unhealthy living conditions – it can be devastating. Social housing providers play a pivotal role in people’s lives, so what can they do to help residents stay afloat as the cost-of-living crisis intensifies?

Too close to the edge: How can housing providers help with the cost of living crisis? Read More »

Two years of pandemic and increasing economic turmoil are taking their toll everywhere, and the first inklings of the long-term repercussions for the social housing sector are revealed by the NFA’s latest annual survey.
Delayed new-build programmes and shortages of skill and experience in the labour market are adding further pressure to hard-pressed local authorities. They are already struggling to fund the significant additional costs of complying with new building safety regulations and urgently needed zero-carbon work.

Retrofit, building safety, affordable housing – councils and their ALMOs can’t carry all of this alone Read More »

23 February 2022
Tina Harrison, Six Town Housing tenant volunteer.

Tina Harrison is a founder member of Bury’s Corrie Gardeners, a ground-breaking tenants’ group in every sense; they’ve turned the turf around the Coronation Garden blocks into a jewel of a communal garden and, on the way, transformed and enriched community life. Tina’s neighbours and fellow gardeners wanted to celebrate her vision and inspiration, the driving force behind this achievement, and during lockdown she was nominated for an MBE. She hopes the honour will inspire other ALMO residents to believe that it really is possible to kickstart change in their own communities.

Tenant power: digging for victory Read More »

9 February 2022
Rob Dryburgh, Assistant Director-Business Intelligence, Regulator of Social Housing

As a senior member of the Regulator of Social Housing’s team, Rob Dryburgh joined a recent NFA webinar on the proposed Tenant Satisfaction Measures. The TSMs are a post-Grenfell reform that promises tenants both a voice and a means of finding out whether landlords are doing their job properly. Rob, RSH Assistant Director-Business Intelligence, explains the process – and seeks final responses to the public consultation on the measures which ends on 3 March 2022.

Tenant Satisfaction Measures: Any questions? Read More »

Tuesday 1 February 2022

With just a month to go before public consultation on the draft Tenant Satisfaction Measures closes, three members of the NFA’s Tenant Advisory Panel comment on this post-Grenfell reform. It promises social housing residents both a voice and a means of finding out whether landlords are doing their job properly.

What do tenants think of the new Tenant Satisfaction Measures? Read More »