Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS)

Active member of the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund – Consultative Panel

Our participation in this Panel enabled TAROE Trust to influence the formulation and operation of the Government’s Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund. Helping to ensure that tenants are worked with rather than done to with delivering this important agenda.

Health and Safety Executive (HSE)

Member of the Statutory Residents Panel of the Building Safety Regulator

Our membership means that tenants and residents have influence in the creation and day-to-day functioning of the new Building Safety Regulator. We know safety is a key concern for residents and are pleased to bring our expertise and the collective voice of tenants and residents experiences to this panel.

The Regulator of Social Housing (RSH)

We have worked with the RSH on:

Active member of the Regulator’s Advisory Panel

We have recently become a member of the Regulator’s new Advisory Panel, which was provided for as part of the Social Housing Regulation Act 2023. The role of the panel is to provide information and advice to the Regulator relating to their functions, and TAROE Trust is pleased to be able to fulfil this function in relation to tenants and residents living within regulated housing in England.

Member of the Regulator’s Sounding Board

We previously attended meetings four times a year to advocate for the commitments in <our manifesto, link to manifesto tab rather than manifesto itself> and to give feedback on the Regulator’s plans for the regulated housing sector. The work of the Sounding Board has recently come to an end and is to be superseded by the new Advisory Panel.

Contributor to the RSH Tenant Liaison Group

We work alongside other National Tenant Organisations <link to tier 3 campaign and advocacy to link to these, focus needs to be on us> to input into developing regulations that impact the housing sector and affect tenants’ homes and housing services.

We also work with the RSH from time to time on more time limited projects. For instance, we contributed to the RSH’s work on the Tenant Satisfaction Measures Working Group.

The Housing Ombudsman

We regularly meet with the Housing Ombudsman Service to share details of emerging casework issues and campaigns so that our respective work programmes can be appropriately informed.

The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLuHC)

We have worked with DLuHC on:

Establishing the Social Housing Quality: Expert Challenge Panel

We successfully campaigned for the creation of this panel, which we have also been appointed to. The Panel, which contains a range of stakeholders from across the regulated housing sector, has an input into the Government’s delivery of promises in the Social Housing White Paper 2020 and subsequent announcements and commitments issued by the Department.

We also participated in a Working Group which saw the establishment of the time limited Resident Panel that enable tenants to have a direct input into the Government’s Social Housing Quality Agenda. This reflects our value of collaborative working, to centre what is important to tenants in housing policy and landlord services.

Decent Homes Review Sounding Board

Our campaign work ensured that the Government committed to the updating of the Decent Homes Standard, and our involvement in this Sounding Board provides an opportunity for us to put forward tenants’ perspectives to this board, which is responsible for exploring options and approaches for reviewing the Decent Homes Standard. The Decent Homes Standard ensures that regulated sector homes meet minimum quality standards in areas such as the quality of the home, neighbourhoods and the services to maintain these. These topics are often of central importance to tenants and residents and we are proud to have successfully campaigned for their inclusion.

Member of the Advisory Panel for the Four Million Homes Programme

This new Government funded programme advises tenants of their rights and will provide training and supporting information to help inform tenants on an increasing range of subjects as the programme is rolled out over the coming years. We are pleased to advise this panel as our research activity has highlighted that tenants can find it difficult to find the confidence to complain and to navigate sometimes complex processes.

We continue to advocate for complementary listening work for landlords as we believe this is a missing piece in the tenant empowerment jigsaw. Read our blog about <communicative injustice> to learn more about our thoughts on the value of listening.

Ad hoc feedback and consultation in emerging housing policy and regulation priorities

Housing policy is a fast-paced environment, and we are called upon to input into policy development and codes of practice. Depending on timescales, we organise consultation events with diverse groups of tenants, or feedback using our expertise developed through years of working with tenants. We have recently responded to the Rent and Service Charge 2022 consultation and the Direction to the Regulator on Mutual Exchange and Tenant Participation in March 2023. We also recently hosted a webinar in partnership with DLUHC on the topic of their new Professionalisation reforms. We are currently developing our response to the RSH consultation on its new Consumer Standards.