How did we develop the Together with Tenants plan and charter? 

Our sector is committed to addressing long-standing questions about our relationship with residents, particularly around accountability, listening and real communication. Since the tragic fire at Grenfell Tower in June 2017, and throughout the subsequent inquiry, housing associations have been working together with residents to build a better future.  

The Social Housing Green Paper, published in 2018, exposed real differences in the way residents feel about social housing and their landlords. Despite being generally positive about social housing and housing associations, the green paper set out a clear expectation for change in the relationship between residents and housing associations. 

To help housing associations make positive change, we developed the Together with Tenants plan and charter, alongside residents and our members. To do this, we developed an independent Tenant Advisory Panel, as well as a Member Steering Group, to find out what change was needed.  

In spring 2019, we launched a formal consultation on the plan, speaking to more than 500 representatives from housing associations and residents through meetings and events. We gathered online feedback from 2,500 respondents – 80% of whom were housing association residents. 

We then took the consultation feedback and developed a programme of further testing with a group of housing associations who volunteered as early adopters. The early adopter programme focused on the charter and resident oversight, so we could gather feedback from our members on the practicalities of implementation and application. 

We launched the charter and plan in May 2019, with the ambition for all housing associations to support our plan and consider adopting the Together with Tenants charter. As of spring 2024, Together with Tenants now has 225 adopters with over 2.4 million homes, equating to almost 88% of homes NHF members own.    

In April 2024, we launched an updated version of the Charter, with an added commitment focusing on Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI), in line with recommendation 5 of the BSHR. This has been developed in close collaboration with the Tenant Advisory Panel, Together with Tenant adopters, the NHF’s EDI National Group and the Centre of Governance and Scrutiny.   

If you would like to become a Together with Tenants adopter, and join hundreds of other housing associations and residents, committed to delivering real, lasting change for our sector – find out more. 

Blogs

We've been gathering blogs from around the sector on the impact housing associations are having by using Together with Tenants with their residents. We will update the space below as we publish new blogs that might be useful.