Respect for All
The Respect for All campaign aims to improve interactions between social housing tenants and their landlords by challenging negative culture and attitudes in the sector
STRATEGY
Image: Istock
Nic Bliss
Housing Advisor
Issue: 63 | December 2022
I remember the stories we heard when the National Tenant Organisations (a group recognised by the government as representative of tenants) were helping the then Housing Minister Alok Sharma with his ministerial roadshows to meet tenants in the wake of the Grenfell tragedy.
There were plenty of good stories, for example the people who were happy with their homes, with having security of tenure having lived in the private sector, with new kitchens, and those who had resolved issues with supportive staff. But we were really struck by the depth and breadth of those who told a different tale.
For example, the tenant who said that he was beset nightly by gangs in his neighbourhood. “What does your landlord do when you report it?” “Oh – they aren’t interested. They do nothing.”
Or the tenant who had been reporting for a year that their windows needed replacing. They’ve been replaced. No, they haven’t. The same conversation many times. He’s just a tenant – he must have got it wrong. Eventually the landlord worked out that their contractor had put his windows into the next-door private house.
Or the many stories about damp and mould. Or the many stories of tenants waiting for a year or more sometimes for the simplest things.
Yes – there were good stories too – but the bad ones went on and on and on.
Turning tide
The Regulator of Social Housing’s Tenant Satisfaction Measures signal it’s time to change. And yes – the better landlords are ahead of the game. But how much have we really tackled the national frustration that tenants often feel when communicating with their landlord?
Have we really tackled the “just a tenant – we know more” impression that tenants often feel? Have we really tackled the default sense among landlords that tenants must always be on the make? Have we really tackled the “oh it’s that tenant again – they’re always complaining” syndrome?
Respect is a hearts and minds issue. It’s not easy. The Government recognised “incidences where people felt talked down to or ignored by staff and contractors” when it published the Charter for Social Housing Residents in November 2020, and set up its Professionalisation Review Group to address professional qualifications issues in the housing sector.
Professional challenge
While acknowledging that the Chartered Institute of Housing and others use imaginative ways to address values in their professional qualifications, my contribution to the Review Group was to suggest that something more is needed to address cultural and attitudinal problems among those working in the sector.
There are brilliant people right across the sector. We need to stimulate debate among them to liberate their desires, ambition and commitment to treat tenants as they would want to be treated themselves.
So, working through TAROE Trust, we initiated Respect for All, a programme aimed at just that – getting debate and discussion going at all levels of the social housing sector. TAROE Trust was the right organisation to lead the programme so it was clearly seen as coming from a tenant perspective.
“There are brilliant people right across the sector. We need to stimulate debate among them to liberate their desires, ambition and commitment to treat tenants as they would want to be treated themselves.”
Respect for All workshops
With the support of the Chartered Institute of Housing, we have been holding pilot Respect for All workshops with social housing organisations.
The sessions start by discussing participants’ personal experiences of good and bad service provision. They bring together a cross section of staff and tenants to define characteristics of customer service excellence and then work into the nuts and bolts of how to bring these characteristics to life in housing.
With the pilot sessions so far having been free flowing and relaxed, staff and tenants have keenly participated. Feedback from the sessions has been overwhelmingly positive – albeit with learning for us.
What we have certainly learnt is that there is a keenness among staff and tenants to get it right, but there are barriers. Respect for All won’t change the world on its own, but the more that debate on culture and attitude is stimulated, the more there will be a willingness and commitment at all levels of the sector to change.
