North Lanarkshire Council unveils new tenant participation strategy

The five year plan, ‘Inform, Involve, Improve’, puts tenants and customers at the heart of housing service delivery, and outlines how the local authority is planning to involve more tenants and other customers in participation opportunities. The plan will help ensure tenants are well informed and empowered to influence service developments and improvements within the housing service.

The strategy’s main aims are:

“We want more people than ever before to help shape housing services,” said Councillor Sam Love, convener of housing and social work services.

“As part of the development of the strategy and our consultation process we’ve worked in partnership with North Lanarkshire Federation of Tenants; and Residents’ Associations, and incorporated comments and feedback from our tenants and residents. However, this isn’t the only opportunity customers have to get involved in housing services and give us their views. Whether, it’s by becoming involved in tenant scrutiny groups, by joining a local tenants and residents’ group, completing one of our surveys or being part of our tenant conference - there are so many ways for people to have their voices heard.

“We value the feedback we receive and want to empower and support our tenants to play a greater role in planning and influencing housing services.”

One of the main points made by tenants is that they want opportunities to participate at a time and level that suits them. North Lanarkshire Council has taken these comment on board and are doing this in a number of ways including using social media; delivering a new e-mail subscription service that provides all the latest housing news direct to tenants and residents who have signed up, and gaining feedback from a variety of surveys ranging from repairs satisfaction to tenant satisfaction.

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