1. Supporting tenant Understanding of Housing Finance
Understanding People – Unlocking Potential
Supporting tenant Understanding of Housing Finance
Alistair Reid Development Manager
TIS Housing & Community Engagement Staff Residential 2017
Thursday 23 – Friday 24 March 2017

2. Supporting tenant understanding of housing finance
Purpose of session
Look at tips and techniques for making housing budgets easy to understand for tenants and other customers
Explore other methods that you can use to engage with tenants on rent levels
Identify other methods you can use to keep your tenants informed about the housing budget on an ongoing basis

3. Supporting tenant understanding of housing finance
Why do you need to do it?
Charter ..
..’get information they need about their landlord, how and why it makes decisions ..’
..’easy to participate in and influence landlord’s decisions …’
..’receive services that provide continually improving value for money ..’
..’balance between level of service, cost, affordability ..’
..’clear information on how rent is spent, including expenditure limits ..’

4. Supporting tenant understanding of housing finance
Why do you need to do it?
Customer expectations
SHR focus on affordability of rents going forward
But what is affordable (20 – 30%) – should there be an agreed level?
New Build Programmes across the country
Housing benefit – what the future holds .. 56% of social landlord income .. Is it secure?

5. Supporting tenant understanding of housing finance
Some key principles
Difference between already active tenants and others
Different approaches required to each
Existing engagement follow structures agreed
For other tenants you need to consider different approaches – more later
Whatever approach you use – building trust is important

6. Supporting tenant understanding of housing finance
Some key principles
Agree your consultation and engagement methods in advance with your tenants, regularly review these methods, and publicise the approaches used
Be open and transparent – information will come out eventually and you want to build trust (but be clear how you present this)
Encourage questions from tenants and others about your budget
No proposal should come as a shock to tenants

7. Supporting tenant understanding of housing finance
How should you present information
Keep it simple
Provide contextual information … where it helps inform (not to make you look better)
Provide valid comparisons .. benchamrking
Break it down into sections .. Ideally agree these with tenants
Don’t be afraid to try new approaches .. Link to individuals household budget
Use diagrams/ graphs/ images where possible
Where every £ is spent …
Glossaries/ Jargon Buster?

8. Supporting tenant understanding of housing finance
Group exercise
Choose three different elements of the housing budget and come up with a simple explanation that would explain to tenants what each meant
eg void rent loss/ CFCR/ interest/ grounds maintenance/ business plan/ inflationary uplift/ response repairs/ environmental improvements

9. Supporting tenant understanding of housing finance
Methods of engagement
Annual rent consultation or ongoing budget discussions?
One off events .. Conference .. Seminars ..road shows ..give clear information .. Present options (real) ..
Scrutiny groups .. Spend a few meetings going over rents/ budgets etc
Existing engagement opportunities .. RTOs / panels / interested tenants
Surveys .. How to target? Balance ..

10. Supporting tenant understanding of housing finance
Methods of engagement
Newsletters (tenant report circa October each year)
Other interaction – housing officer visits .. Phone calls
Be accessible .. Where tenants want to meet
Ongoing discussions about budget
Existing groups
One off events
Newsletters
Other interested tenants (or potential tenants)

11. Supporting tenant understanding of housing finance
Key Tips
Do ..
Be open and provide real choice
Be demonstrate that you will listen .. And actually do it
Don’t ..
Ask leading questions
Extend effort if you aren’t going to listen

12. Supporting tenant understanding of housing finance
Next steps
Autumn
TIS rent setting event
Guide to involving tenants in rent setting
Any questions