Broadland Housing Group

Homes, community & support since 1963

Independent East

Housing conference focuses on the importance of listening to tenants

Housing conference focuses on the importance of listening to tenants

The first Independent East conference was held near Norwich in November 2022. More than 100 tenants, board members and staff attended from five housing associations based in Norfolk and Suffolk. The conference focused on what lies in store for social housing in 2023 and the important role of tenants.

Independent East Conference November 2022, delegates discussing in group around a table
Independent East Conference November 2022,3 delegates chatting at table
Independent East Conference November 2022, speaker Kate Dodsworth from Regulator of Social Housing
Independent East Conference, November 2022

There were keynote speeches from housing experts Hilary Burkitt, Director of Housing at IFF Research; Kathryn Eyre, Quality, Engagement & Development Director of the Housing Ombudsman; and Kate Dodsworth, Director of Consumer Regulation for the Regulator of Social Housing. The programme also included table discussions and opportunities for questions.

Creative collaboration

In their discussions, the participants focused on creative collaboration as a key solution to the challenges faced by housing associations. They discussed how these challenges might be alleviated by really listening to tenants and putting them at the heart of decisions in the difficult year(s) ahead.

I found the keynote speeches informative, positive and thought-provoking. The whole conference was uplifting and well attended by tenants. It shows a growing interest in how attitudes to social housing and engaging with our landlords are changing.

Jane, a Broadland tenant who participated

It’s important for the sector to come together and think deeply about the challenges they are facing at the moment in such unprecedented times. The takeaway from today is a real sense that everyone is up for the challenge that we’re facing. Despite the great difficulties for housing associations, for tenants, everyone is up for thinking about how they are going to address these challenges and to make sure we are doing our very best for all of our tenants.

Hilary Burkitt, Director of Housing IFF Research

The event was organised by Independent East, an informal alliance of five community‐focused housing associations in the East of England – Broadland Housing, Freebridge Community Housing, Havebury Housing Partnership, Saffron Housing Trust, and Orwell Housing Association.

Independent East will continue to work collaboratively together and with tenants to address common issues, sharing ideas and best practice to continually improve services and better the lives of their customers.

CEOs of Independent East housing associations, November 2022
The CEOs of the five Independent East housing associations: from left to right: James Francis (Saffron); Michael Newey (Broadland); Anita Jones (Freebridge); Andrew Smith (Havebury); Wendy Evans-Hendrick (Orwell)

East of England Social Housing Regulator Meeting, October 2021

  • Kate Dodsworth at Regulator for Social Housing meeting at Broadland Housing Association, October 2021
  • Tenant at Regulator for Social Housing meeting at Broadland Housing Association, October 2021
  • Michael Newey at Regulator for Social Housing meeting at Broadland Housing Association, October 2021
  • Tenants at Regulator for Social Housing meeting at Broadland Housing Association, October 2021
  • Tenants' concerns at Regulator for Social Housing meeting at Broadland Housing Association, October 2021
  • Tenant at Regulator for Social Housing meeting at Broadland Housing Association, October 2021
(Top left) Kate Dodsworth, Director of Consumer Regulation, RSH, addressing tenants;
(top right) Michael Newey, Chief Executive of Broadland Housing Association;
(above) tenants participating in workshop sessions

Kate Dodsworth, Director of Consumer Regulation at the Housing Regulator, met tenants from 7 social housing providers across the eastern region at a meeting hosted by Broadland Housing in October.

The aim was to get tenants’ feedback on what is important to them and how well their landlord listens to their issues and concerns.

The meeting, organised jointly by Placeshapers and the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH), was an exciting opportunity for tenants to give their views directly to the Regulator.

Social Housing White Paper

Last year, the Government published its Social Housing White Paper. This requires RSH to change the way it carries out consumer regulation in social housing and to create a new consumer function. RSH wants to hear from social housing tenants over the next few years on a range of topics relating to this, to better understand what matters to them. This will help RSH shape how the new consumer function should work in practice.

The session at Carrow Road, Norwich, covered how regulation in the social housing sector works at the moment and the changes the White Paper is introducing, and the opportunities coming up to engage further with RSH.

Positive feedback from tenants

The day started with a joint meeting between members of Independent East (a partnership between Broadland Housing, Freebridge, Havebury, Saffron and Orwell Housing). Tenants from the housing associations learned how they could influence positive change with their landlords, share best practice and discuss the issues they face.  There were also opportunities for tenants to share their thoughts with RSH directly during workshop sessions. 

The feedback from the meeting was very positive: 93% of tenants who attended said they would like to see a new forum set up. The most popular topics for further discussion are: reviewing service standards, reviewing complaints together and training.

Tenants were also interested in attending other ad hoc workshops and seminars. This is an exciting development in the sector and we will be posting more news and developments as they happen.

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