Tenants - get involved

Welcome to the Tenant Involvement pages

If you are a tenant or leaseholder of Bristol City Council and would like to have your say on how we deliver our services to you - get involved! We are  committed to ensuring you have the opportunity to participate in shaping and improving Landlord Services at a level that is meaningful to you. Read on to find out how you can be involved.

News - Tenant Participation Spring Conference 2012

"Get on board, the journey starts here". This was the theme of this years very successful annual conference.Read all about it in our Conference Special:

Tenant Participation Spring Conference 2012: Accessible version (pdf, 165 KB)

Tenant Participation Spring Conference 2012: Full colour version (pdf, 1.4 MB)

News - Bristol Housing Partnership event - Saturday 16 June

Bristol City Council tenants are invited to an event being organised by the Bristol Housing Partnership (BHP). The BHP is an umbrella organisation bringing together tenants from all social landlords in the city. The event on the 16th will be looking at Home Choice Bristol and DIY skills. If you want more information about the event see the attached flyer. (pdf, 246 KB)

News – Tenant Training Survey

We want to know what training for tenants you would like us to provide. Send back your completed tenant training survey (pdf, 43 KB) to the freepost address shown and we will enter you into a prize draw.

Our commitment to you - Tenant involvement and empowerment strategy

Your views are very important to us. Please read our Tenant involvement and empowerment strategy (pdf, 419 KB), which sets out our commitment and priorities to involving and empowering you over the next three years. It was developed in partnership with tenants and staff. If you have any questions or comments about the strategy please do get in touch.

Ways you can get involved

For all of the ways you can get involved please see our get involved! leaflet (pdf, 0.6 MB).

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.

Moving On - Housing Forum are going

With effect from 31 May 2012 the current six Housing Forums will close. Letters have been sent to all active members of the Forums during the week commencing 21 April 2012 setting out the reasons for their closure together with information about other ways to get involved with Landlord Services (pdf, 460 KB) and Neighbourhood Forums (pdf, 286 KB).  See the Letter to Housing Forum Members (pdf, 137 KB).

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 website (TPAS) also has a useful range of guides that explains what you will need to do. Tenants' Associations that meet our recognition criteria (pdf, 39 KB) can apply for funding from the council, which is money they can use to pay for meeting venues, stationery, 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 website (TPAS)
• Tenants' and Residents' Organisations of England website (TAROE)
• National Federation of Tenant Management Organisations website (NFTMO)
• Tenant Services Authority website