Tenants - get involved

News -Tenant Participation Spring Conference 2012

We are holding our annual Spring Conference (pdf, 0.8 MB)on Saturday 17 March between 10am and 2pm in the Council House, College Green, Bristol. BS1 5TR.

There will be lots going on including the launch of the new 'Tenant Involvement and Empowerment Strategy', volunterring opportunities, tenant inspectors, taster sessions, information stands and lots more. The event is free for tenants and leaseholders of Bristol City Council.

If you want further information or to book your place, contact the Tenant Participation Team.

Join our involvement register

We have a list of tenants and leaseholders whose views we seek on a regular basis. We then use any feedback to shape and improve the services you receive. All information is held in confidence and is only used by the Tenant Participation Team. Contact us for more information.

Join your local Housing Forum

There are six Housing Forums across the city. They aim to give as many people as possible the opportunity to voice their views, opinions and concerns about where they live and the housing services they receive.

The Housing Management Board

The Housing Management Board works towards improving the way council housing is managed in Bristol. Meetings take place every six weeks at the Council House and are open for anyone to attend.

Join a Service User Group

If you are interested in becoming involved in how our services are run and managed you can join a Service User Group. Each of our services has a Service User Group.

Join or set up a Tenants' Association

A Tenants' Association is a group of tenants and sometimes also residents, of a particular area that have come together to discuss housing and other local issues. There are a number of Tenants' Associations throughout Bristol. If you would like to find out if there is one where you live please contact us.

Setting up a Tenants' Association

If you would like to set up a Tenants' Association please see the following guides produced by inSTEP:

• Setting up a Tenants' Association (pdf, 1.3 MB).
• Equality and diversity - A guide for Tenants' Associations (pdf, 1.2 MB).

The Tenant Participation Advisory Service (TPAS) also has a useful range of guides that explains what you will need to do. Tenants' Associations that meet our recognition criteria (pdf, 35 KB) can apply for funding from the council, which is money they can use to pay for meeting venues, stationary, postage and other expenses.

Take part in a caretaking site inspection

If you receive a caretaking service you are very welcome to attend a site inspection. These are where a Site Coordinator along with any tenants walk around a site. This is to check that various things such as staircases, laundries and lifts meet our cleaning standards. Full training is available. For further information please contact Caretaking Services.

Take part in a neighbourhood walkabout

We aim to ensure that where you live is safe and clean. To help us to do this we carry out neighbourhood walkabouts. These involve Housing Advisors walking around the areas that they are responsible for, with tenants, identifying and tackling a range of issues such as graffitti and poorly maintained areas. If you have time you would be very welcome to join us for a walkabout.

Other ways to get involved

You might not want to get involved in a group, attend regular meetings or read lots of documents, but you still might want your voice heard. Maybe you would like to:

• Take part in focus groups. These are small groups of people who might be invited to discuss a particular topic. They usually last for about two hours.
• Fill in a postal questionnaire a couple of times a year. We provide the pre-paid envelope.
• Help us to organise our large events. For example our annual Tenant Conference and Awards Ceremony.
• Help us to deliver training sessions.
• Help us to develop our Toolkits on how to involve different groups of people.
• Help us develop a new Involvement and Empowerment Strategy and a new Tenant Compact.

Contact us if you would like to be involved.

Further information

The following organisations provide a range a useful guides and information about tenant participation and ways you can get involved.

• Tenant Participation Advisory Service (TPAS) (external website)
• Tenants' and Residents' Organisations of England (TAROE) (external website)
• National Federation of Tenant Management Organisations (NFTMO) (external website)
• Tenant Services Authority (external website)