Tenants and Leaseholders Consultation Agreement

The agreement (currently under review)

Introduction

Thanet District Council will make sure that all tenants and leaseholders have an equal opportunity to influence decisions on all matters concerning the management of their homes. We recognise that meaningful tenant and leaseholder participation can achieve quality improvements in the housing service.

We have worked with members of the Tenants Consultation Group and the Tenants and Residents Association Forum to carry out a fundamental review of the Tenants Liaison Contract (TLC) and the Leaseholder Liaison

Contract (LLC). The review highlighted that the names of the TLC and LLC didn’t make clear their purpose or content and a new combined contract named ‘Tenants and Leaseholders Consultation Agreement’ was agreed.

The “Tenants and Leaseholders Consultation Agreement” is an agreement between Thanet District Council and its tenants and leaseholders to work together in partnership to develop and improve housing services. This agreement is a working document which will be reviewed and monitored by tenants, leaseholders, council officers and councillors and will be fully re-examined in three years.

Our commitment to you

Working in partnership with our tenants and leaseholders to improve services, Thanet District Council is committed:

• To encourage effective consultation on how the housing and leaseholder services are managed and delivered.
• Constantly challenge our approach to consultation to ensure continuous improvement in the service.
• To communicate clearly and effectively, replying to letters, emails and telephone calls within timescales set by agreed service standards.

Information and communication

We realise that communication is the key to successful tenant and leaseholder participation and it’s important that you know we are listening to you. The language used at meetings and written information will be:

• in plain language and jargon free.
• available in other languages, in Braille, large print or on audio cassette (upon request). It is important we keep all tenants and leaseholders informed by:
• Producing four Your Say newsletters per year.
• Publishing the results of consultations and surveys.
• Providing updates from tenants groups as to how they have participated.
• Informing you of who is your housing officer and how you can contact them.
• Producing an annual performance report.
• All new tenants and leaseholders will receive a Summary of this Agreement in their new home pack.
• Continue to look at all ways to communicate with hard to reach groups.

The benefits of getting involved

In order to create happy and vibrant communities, we must work together. Only by working together can we identify your needs and expectations. Here are some of the many ways that participation in Thanet will benefit your community:

• Better services that are more responsive to local needs.
• Improved quality of decision making by involving tenants and leaseholders in the process.
• Greater understanding and confidence of tenants and leaseholders in what the Council is trying to achieve.
• Improve accountability and responsiveness of Thanet District Council to its tenants and leaseholders.
• Ensuring that diversity policies and procedures are followed and the needs and views of all groups are addressed.
• Greater cost effectiveness by ensuring that services are delivered in a relevant way to those who need them.

Getting involved

We recognise that not all tenants or leaseholders want or have the time to get involved formally, so we have developed a wide range of informal ways to address this. You may already be involved without realising it.

Getting involved is as easy as: 1 2 3

Next: Consultation Structure