Tenant volunteers from Wokingham Borough Council have received awards after their input and impact was recognised at this year’s Affordable Housing Awards.
Tenant volunteers form an integral part of the council’s Tenant and Landlord Improvement Panel (TLIP) and wrote the Tenant Charter, which placed top in the ‘Excellence in Community-led Decision Making’ category.
The volunteers are all tenants of Wokingham Borough Council, and are committed to improving the communities they live in, reducing the stigma of being a council tenant and being involved at all levels including housing service contract management and staff appointments.
Members of TLIP are elected and are generally members of one of the working groups; Communications; Repairs and Maintenance; and Neighbourhoods; who focus on specific areas of improving community life.
Alongside the tenant volunteers, TLIP includes council staff, councillors, and the voluntary sector.
Set up in the early 2000s, the partnership ensures tenants are part of decision making and have a voice in the services their landlord provides, ensuring improvements are identified, developed and implemented.
The awards took place in mid-November in Manchester, and housing developer Wates sponsored a table to enable representatives from TLIP and the council to attend.
Cllr Stephen Conway, leader of the council and executive member for housing, said: “It was a privilege to attend the event alongside our tenant volunteers and the team, and to see them win rounded off what was already a great celebration of their achievements.
“We were up against some tough competition, all of whom had great initiatives and would have been worthy winners.
“To find ourselves not only shortlisted against them but to win is testament to the work that our tenant volunteers and the rest of the Tenant and Landlord Improvement Panel do to make our housing and communities better places to live.”
Steve Bowers, chair of the Tenant and Landlord Improvement panel said “I am so proud of the partnership between Wokingham Borough Council and the tenant volunteers.
“Picking up this award is the culmination of many years of working together to achieve service improvements and value for money for our tenants.
“It’s great that we are being recognised for the Excellence in Community Led Decision Making, because it is a community working together, that of tenants, Wokingham Borough Council officers and councillors.
“I want to say a big thank you to all those people who have worked with us over this year and the years before, here’s to many more years working together.”
