Together with Tenants: amplifying resident voice and influence at MSV

The Better Social Housing Review (BSHR) in 2022 came at a pivotal moment for social housing. People involved in social housing really care and endeavour to do their very best for customers and communities every day. But the tragic fire at Grenfell Tower, the tragic death of Awaab Ishak due to damp and mould in his home, and many shocking stories of residents affected by poor standards have been a sobering wake up call for our sector to urgently do more to make sure every resident of social housing has a safe, secure and good quality home.

Since the BSHR report was published in December 2022, it has been good to see the positive response and ongoing efforts to act on the seven recommendations made by the independent BSHR expert panel. As they said: ‘good quality housing is a basic human right’. The places we call home have a significant impact on our health, happiness and what we can achieve in life.

Here at MSV, we have wholeheartedly embraced the joint action plan led by the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) and the NHF, and it has really helped us shape new approaches and build on what our customers and colleagues were already doing well. We are fortunate to work with a broad range of diverse people and communities and we have always tried to work within neighbourhoods with localised services. But we wanted to do so much more.

How have we been amplifying resident voice and influence at MSV?

One of the recommendations asked that housing associations work with residents to ensure they have a voice and influence at all levels and identified a huge need to amplify diverse voices. The Together with Tenants Charter was revised in April 2024 to respond to this with a renewed focus on Equality, Diversity and Inclusion. As an early adopter of the Charter, we were keen to develop this further and it has really made a difference.

Led by our customers, in response to the BSHR and aligning with the values of the Together with Tenants Charter, we have:

• Developed a customer-led new 3-year corporate plan – The MSV Way.
• Launched a new Customer Voice Strategy, which was shaped by over 200 customers involved in discovery and design sessions (with support from TPAS).
• Worked with our brilliant Scrutiny Panel with a renewed vigour and focus, embedding the values of the Charter into their work when reviewing services.
• Undertaken a full, transparent and honest review of the customer complaints journey, which led to the development of a new team, a new policy and customer complaints panel. The results are really promising, and our performance has improved significantly.
• Genuinely worked to ensure there is customer influence at every level of the organisation through our refreshed Customer and Communities Committee and Scrutiny Panel with direct links to the Board, a wide range of influencing groups and channels, with paid roles and voluntary positions.
• Co-designed a new Neighbourhood Strategy with a focus on increasing visibility within communities, smaller patches, working without silos and making best use of our community hubs.
• Opened more regular customer drop-in sessions within our neighbourhoods, attended by people across the business. We’ve increased the frequency of our Nibbles n Natter sessions with customers across the northwest, which our Exec and Senior Leadership team always attend. These sessions are always packed, buzzing and we act on what customers tell us.
• Introduced localised and scheme level newsletters and updates – improving the way we communicate. This was led by customer feedback.
• Reinforced the value of partnership and collaboration. For example, supporting projects helping women experiencing domestic abuse, alleviating food poverty, cleaner and greener initiatives, youth projects, tackling gang violence and knife crime, and routes into better work. There are many other agencies and voluntary sector partners who can offer more expertise.
• Working with our Greater Manchester partners on long-term movements for change such as the BOOST allyship programme for more ethnically diverse leaders and the 20% movement to help more of our tenants and their families into careers in housing.
• Relaunched our Positive Futures hub in Moss Side as a drop-in centre and providing a wide range of advice and support for the community.

We are also doing much more to know our homes and customers. This enables us to design and shape better homes and services according to need. The BSHR shone a light on structural inequalities and the fact that Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic households, people with disabilities and single parents have been disproportionately impacted by poor housing. We are working hard to understand and act on this. For example, we have brought together satisfaction ratings, stock condition data, overcrowding and data on ethnicity to inform new asset management and growth strategies - bringing forward investment in our older and colder homes and plans to develop larger family homes.

Doing everything together with our tenants has improved our performance, helped us design more meaningful strategies and develop more equitable service delivery. We’ve learnt so much from our residents. It just makes sense, and we are determined to do even more.