Becoming an adopter

Why should my organisation adopt the Together with Tenants charter?

Together with Tenants is an opportunity to put residents at the heart of strategic decision-making and work together to deliver positive change for housing associations and residents.

The charter is an opportunity to show leadership on resident engagement. It challenges our sector to go further, and for housing associations to take the lead in accountability and resident oversight.

So far over 225 housing associations have adopted the charter. To join them, or find out more, email togetherwithtenants@housing.org.uk.

How do we support adopters?

By signing up as a Together with Tenants adopter, you’ll be sent a welcome pack and benefit from:

Best practice: We provide opportunities for adopters to share challenges, advice and best practice as you work through the plan. Whether your organisation is starting from scratch, or already has a well-developed model of resident oversight, you’ll have the opportunity to share your experiences with others.
Guidance: We publish regular webinars, briefings and updates covering the most common challenges experienced by early adopters, as well as ideas for how to go further with the plan and content produced by and for residents.
Recognition: We provide a Together with Tenants adopter badge for you to use on your website and email signature, to demonstrate your organisation’s commitment to building a stronger relationship with residents.

What we expect from adopters

Being a Together with Tenants adopter is a commitment to:

Establish meaningful resident engagement in decision making.
Work collaboratively with residents to design mechanisms for oversight.
Support residents to hold your organisation to account.
Be open to the challenges that all of this brings.

Adopting the charter means putting the charter commitments into practice, and working with residents to ensure they have a strong role in overseeing the implementation of the charter, with a direct link to your board. Practically, this means:

Taking the charter to your board.
Holding some form of consultation with residents about the charter.
Holding some form of consultation with colleagues about the charter.

Once adopters have done this, and have agreed a way forward, adopters should publicise their adopter commitments and publicise how residents will oversee the commitments made, with regular updates. This could be done through key performance indicator reporting, or via new governance structures or communication methods.

Implementing Together with Tenants, and being true to the intent behind it, will require effort and energy. Adopters will be supported on this journey by hundreds of other housing associations and residents, committed to delivering real, lasting change for our sector.

To become an adopter, or find out more, email togetherwithtenants@housing.org.uk.

Who to speak to

Ewan Fulford, Policy Officer

Ewan.Fulford@housing.org.uk

Why should my organisation adopt the Together with Tenants charter?

How do we support adopters?

What we expect from adopters

Who to speak to

Ewan Fulford, Policy Officer

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