Response to: “A new inclusive Tenant Participation Strategy”

If we remove the gloss from this report titled “A new inclusive Tenant Participation Strategy (TP Strategy)”, the Council proposes a fundamental overhaul of tenant participation in Camden.

Words like inclusiveness are repeated several times, and while such words on the surface are admirable, there is a sense that current representative tenant structures are going to be somehow watered down by overemphasising the importance of the individual voice in tenant participation. While Camden Fed values the importance and added value of listening to the ‘individual’ voice we hold paramount collective and democratically accountable tenant structures.

Camden’s new found emphasis on the individual comes across significantly because the first reports brought to District Management Committees (DMC) was talking about the need to “build on, and strengthening existing TP structures such as DMCs and District Monitoring Panels (DMP)”. However in the agreed strategy document the play on words have changed to “building and strengthening tenant participation”. Instead, sentences like “strengthening and building on existing structures such as DMCs” have disappeared all together.

If there is a move towards “equal” involvement regardless of status (i.e. elected representative tenants) or tenure (i.e. a Housing Association or private tenant), then the council needs to be honest and tell existing DMCs and their member Tenants and Residents Associations (TRA) that they don’t need to jump through the hoops and set up democratically accountable TRAs because whether individuals or democratically accountable groups, we shall all have equal access to tenant participation.

Also there is a feel to this report that somehow existing structures may not be truly representative. If the Council believes this is a problem then lets see the evidence and address it instead of chucking the baby out with the bath water.

Key Line of Enquiries (KLOE) are a necessary evil as this is one of the tools used by government to judge councils performance in TP. However in eagerness to impress governments we mustn’t divert the necessary focus away from tenant participation and from actually doing the work on the ground to encourage tenants to get involved.

The Compact Monitoring Board (CMB) welcomes the support from DMCs for widening its remit to monitor the Tenant Participation Strategy. However there is some disappointment that CMB Members have had no opportunity to see this report before it was presented to DMCs. Clearly if the CMB is going to monitor the strategy there needs to be better protocols to ensure CMB members have opportunities to carry out their monitoring function.

Photo by gaspi