Being a better landlord
Commitment 5
Work collaboratively with residents and housing staff to explore lived realities of housing services.
Lead
Housing Management and Housing Needs
Our progress
Residents have fed into the development of the Housing Management Involvement strategy at every stage and this has helped to create a system which better values and uses the experience of residents in developing our services.
Next steps
Our research into the lived realities of tenants, those in temporary accommodation and those experiencing homelessness via interviews is ongoing, and is expected to conclude in early 2026. This work will feed into our service design and policy development.
We are reviewing the consultation feedback on the Resident Involvement Strategy and we will move towards full adoption and publication by the end of 2026.
Commitment 6
Improve support for tenants, leaseholders and residents in temporary accommodation to make complaints.
Lead
Housing Management, Housing Needs and Customer Access
Our progress
Our complaints policy and procedure has been changed to reflect the requirements of the Housing Ombudsman's Complaints Code.
Next steps
Our promise has been incorporated into our review of complaints and issues of communication. Support for residents will be considered as part of the review. We will work with the Independent Advisory Panel to design the review.
The complaints review will be completed with recommendations put in place by 31 March 2026.
Commitment 7
Ensure impacts on social tenants and residents in temporary accommodation are considered in council decision making.
Lead
Corporate Strategy and Corporate Health & Safety
Our progress
A Safety Impact Assessment is now included with all key decisions and executive decisions.
We have drafted a new Equality Impact Assessment which was agreed in December 2025.
Next steps
We will explicitly consider the impact on residents in social housing and temporary accommodation in the Equality Impact Assessments and Safety Impact Assessments.
Commitment 8
Build more effective working relationships between Housing and other departments.
Lead
Cross-council
Our progress
Housing has already worked to establish effective working relationships with teams across the council. Several high-level forums exist, including between Housing and Adult Social Care teams, and Housing and Communities teams.
We have established a cross-council board to respond to legislative changes. We will learn from Children's Services, ASC and other departments' experiences of legislative change and regulation.
Housing and Public Health developed the Warm and Well programme (in collaboration with Children’s Services) to proactively identify mould and damp conditions. This has also helped improve collaboration with NHS partners.
Housing Fire Safety and Building Control continue to meet regularly enabling the teams to collaborate on building safety issues relevant to the council as a freeholder.
Next steps
We will continue to maintain high quality relationships and look at how we can build stronger bonds with other parts of the council.