The rights of social housing residents are set for a boost as the Government moves to rebalance the power between tenants and landlords with a new training programme.
Announced today by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, the Four Million Homes scheme aims to empower tenants and give them the tools to hold their landlords to account.
As part of the project, people will be provided with training programmes on everything from how to address damp and mould concerns, all the way to how to deal with anti-social behaviour and how to access the Housing Ombudsman service.
Social Housing Minister, Baroness Scott of Bybrook OBE, said: “Tenants deserve better and this training programme will help people up and down the country demand a high-quality service from their landlord.
“We are driving up standards in social housing through landmark legislation and making sure residents’ voices are heard with digital advertisement campaigns. The Four Million Homes programme is the latest part of our plan to drive a culture change right at the very heart of the social housing sector.”
The programme follows other government action to support tenants, including the Make Things Right campaign and the Social Housing Regulation Bill that is making its way through Parliament.
The Confederation of Co-operative Housing’s CEO, Blase Lambert, added: “All social housing residents need to understand their rights, know how to raise issues with their landlords and hold them to account, and be able to shape and improve the services they receive and the homes they live in. This training programme will do that.”
Starting with a session on how tenants can make the necessary complaints and enforce their rights, next month will see the start of Four Million Homes’ training programmes. The sessions, which will last for 24 months from May, will feature in-person accredited training in places such as London, Birmingham, Liverpool and Newcastle.
September will see the roll out of online training videos to ensure as many people as possible can benefit from the new scheme.
More information on the Four Million Homes programme is available here.
