On Thursday 23rd November, the Department for Communities and Local Government ran an event designed to provide tenant-focused input for the upcoming Green Paper on social housing, which is expected in the New Year. Roundtable discussions were facilitated with both housing officers and separately with tenants.
Tuntum’s Head of Housing and Sales Jo Page attended, as well as members of our tenant scrutiny panel Magnify. The 5 key areas of the discussions were:
- Welfare reform
- Affordability
- Access to housing
- Community – and the sense of isolation
- Stigma
The Minister of State for Housing & Planning Alok Sharma closed the event with a tenant Q&A session. Residents asked questions about the sale of houses, stigma around social housing, health and social care, developers building for profit, and private sector licensing and rogue landlords.
Mr Sharma summed up the event saying,
“As Housing Minister, at the end of my term I want to make sure I can say –
1 We helped to fix the broken housing market
2 We put fairness back into it.
We want to get back to where living in social housing is a really good thing.”
It was a really valuable day, with many interesting points raised, and we’re proud that our tenants were able to contribute to the Minister’s understanding of social housing.
If you were unable to attend the Minister’s visit, there’s still a chance to make your voice heard. He wants to hear from as many tenants as possible – click here to fill out the online survey and share your opinions.
