Housing Resident Engagement Strategy 2025 to 2028 - The national and local context

National context

There are legal obligations of local housing authority landlords to consult tenants on housing management matters in the Housing Act 1985 (Section 105). With focuses in the Housing sector on Health & Safety, following the Grenfell Tower disaster, further powers to the Housing Ombudsman and widespread media coverage on the standard of social housing homes, there has been an increased focus on Resident Engagement to ensure that residents have a voice.

Charter for Social Housing Residents: Social Housing White Paper (2020)

The charter was published in November 2020 and builds on the proposals of the social housing green paper. The Charter sets out what every resident should be able to expect from their landlord:

1. To be safe in your home.
2. To know how your landlord is performing.
3. To have your complaints dealt with promptly and fairly.
4. To be treated with respect.
5. To have your voice heard by your landlord.
6. To have a good quality home and neighbourhood to live in.
7. To be supported to take your first step to ownership.

The charter is clear that landlords should monitor and track engagement, ensuring that this is improved over time, and provide engagement opportunities that promote resident empowerment. It also emphasises how resident experiences should be embedded across policies, plans and services.

You can find out more about the Charter for Social Housing Residents – GOV.UK.

Regulatory standards for Landlords: Consumer Standards (2024)

The Regulatory Standards are set by the Regulator of Social Housing (using powers under the Housing and Regeneration Act 2008) and explain the outcomes that social landlords in England must deliver. There are two overall standards:

• Consumer Standards
• Economic Standards

For the purpose of the Housing Resident Engagement Strategy, the Consumer Standards will be most relevant. The Consumer Standards were updated in April 2024 and include the following:

• Neighbourhood and Community Standard
• Safety and Quality Standard
• Tenancy Standard
• Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard

It is required for landlords to provide opportunities for tenant engagement which takes into account resident views to influence decision-making and scrutinise strategies, policies and the services delivered by the landlord. Its also required that information about landlord services and performance information is communicated with residents to provide meaningful opportunities for consultation.

Landlords must be able to evidence how they meet each standard. The Regulator of Social Housing is auditing landlords and publishing their consumer standard grading.

You can find out more about the Regulatory standards for landlords – GOV.UK.

Tenant Satisfaction Measures (2023)

The Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard also includes the Tenant Satisfaction Measures (TSMs) which were implemented in April 2023. The Tenant Satisfaction Measures are split into two aspects of data:

• Data collected from Tenant Perception Surveys
• Data generated from management information

It’s required that the Tenant Survey is carried out annually, alongside gathering of generated management information. Results must be communicated and published to residents and reported back to the Regulator of Social Housing.

You can find out more about the Tenant Satisfaction Measures – GOV.UK.

Local context

The Woking Borough Council Housing Strategy was implemented in 2021 to identify objectives and strategic priorities to meet the current and future needs of the local population. There has been a considerable amount of change in a national context since the implementation. The Strategic priorities remain as:

1. To provide well-designed, high-quality homes that are affordable and meet local needs.
2. To prevent homelessness and help those in housing need.
3. To help people to achieve independence and wellbeing.
4. To deliver an improved housing service to our tenants and leaseholders.
5. To enhance choice, standards and quality within the private rented sector

Strategic priority 4 commits to ensuring residents are involved in delivery of the housing service, creating more opportunities for residents to get involved and improving the services through resident feedback. The Housing Strategy also mentions the need to produce a new Resident Engagement Strategy to ensure that engagement is formalised.

You can find out more about the Housing Strategy.

Woking For All (2024)

The Woking For All Corporate strategy for Woking Borough Council was adopted in February 2024. The vision for the strategy is:

a financially and environmentally sustainable council delivering services that residents value in every part of the borough.

The mission statement includes:

• A trusted and transparent council that lives within its means.
• Focuses its energy on services that make a difference to people in the borough.
• Works in partnership with all communities to deliver positive outcomes.
• Continually engages with residents to design more efficient and effective services.
• Invests in talent to deliver for Woking’s future.

The implementation of this Housing Resident Engagement Strategy is supporting a number of the mission statements in the Woking For All Strategy. It also supports the Improvement and Recovery Plan of which Housing has its own programme. Within the Housing Improvement Programme is the Resident Engagement and Consultation workstream. This workstream has a number of activities, including the need to produce the Resident Engagement Strategy.

You can find out more about the Woking For All Strategy and the Improvement and Recovery Plan.