BSHR recommendation 5

Recommendation 5: ‘Housing associations should work with all residents to ensure that they have a voice and influence at every level of decision making across the organisation, through both voluntary and paid roles.’ 
 
Read recommendation 5 in full in the Better Social Housing Review.  
 
A key action for housing associations delivering this recommendation is to assess performance against tenants’ experiences by empowering them to lead investigations and reviews, and expand the roles they can play across organisations. 

The NHF and CIH’s work so far 

Our planned work on this recommendation is set out in our action plan. 
  
The NHF is revising the Together with Tenants charter to align with changes to consumer regulation and embed equality, diversity and inclusion as a vital component, with a focus on representation, especially of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic residents. We’ve kickstarted this process through a webinar, which you can now watch online. We aim to publish the new charter in December 2023.  
  
We are running events and webinars related to all of the recommendations from the BSHR, including planning for a new resident engagement conference in February 2024. Work is underway to ensure it best supports this BSHR recommendation. 

Related government action 

New Consumer Standards and Code of Practice: the government is consulting on these (consultation closes 17 October 2023). They will set stronger requirements for social landlords around how and how often they physically inspect their homes, and how they use information about property condition and about residents’ needs to inform their services. They are likely to come into effect from April 2024.  

Tenant Satisfaction Measures Standard: requires all housing associations to collect and report annually on their performance, using a core set of defined measures to provide tenants with greater transparency about their landlord’s performance.

Decent Homes Standard: the government is revising the Decent Homes Standard to set higher minimum quality standards for all rented homes. 
 
Read about the other six BSHR recommendations.