Corporation in groundbreaking deal with Beacon councils
Housing Corporation News Release
Corporation in groundbreaking deal with Beacon councils
-£100,000 allocated to Beacon councils to promote resident involvement-
29 January 2007 Media Contact: Naomi Evans 020 7393 2118 Ref: 07/2007
For the first time funding to promote resident involvement is being allocated to Beacon councils by the Housing Corporation. £100,000 of funding from the Housing Corporation's Local Authority Tenant Empowerment Programme (TEP) and its Innovation and Good Practice (IGP) programme, will support a programme of activity by Beacon councils to boost performance on resident involvement by local authorities, housing associations and ALMOs.
The joint initiative, which highlights the growing links between the Corporation and local government, will build on the successful work of the four Improving Housing Services by Involving Tenants Beacon councils - Carrick District Council, London Borough of Croydon, Bolton Metropolitan Council and Kirklees Council. Key aspects of the initiative will include the knowledge sharing, training and mentoring support.
As part of the deal, the four Beacon councils will also work closely with the future Housing Corporation Gold Award 'Empowering Communities' theme winners. The results of the Corporation's second round of Gold Awards will be announced in May 2007.
Housing Corporation Director of Policy and Communications, Matt Leach, said, "This is great news and it shows how both our Innovation and Good Practice and Tenant Empowerment programmes are helping to boost performance across both local government and the housing association sector.
"Good quality, effective resident involvement is integral to improving housing services. The project will help ensure that housing associations have the opportunity to learn from best practice in local government. "
The Housing Corporation has prioritised resident involvement following publication of its consultation on a new resident involvement policy in December 2006 and the launch of the Gold award's 'Empowering Communities' theme.
The Beacon councils will be sharing their experience and good practice with roadshow events and a learning event tailored specifically to residents, which will take place later this year.
Ends.
Notes to Editors
1) The announcement illustrates the growing relationship between the Housing Corporation and local government. Examples include:
- the transfer of responsibility for administration of the Tenant Empowerment Programme (TEP) to the Corporation last year, providing support to residents groups in local authority housing;
- the recent signing of the LGA/Housing Corporation protocol in December 2006, and negotiation of up to 20 further local protocols with key strategic local authority partners;
- the transfer of the team responsible for boosting the performance of London local authorities in tackling homelessness to the Housing Corporation from Communities and Local Government [press release reference 06/07, 24 January 2007].
2) The Beacon council scheme is administered for Communities and Local Government by the IDeA. It celebrates excellence in performance in local government and provides a range of learning opportunities for the sharing of good practice between councils to support the process of service improvement.
The theme for round 7 of the Beacon Council Scheme was “Improving Housing Services by Involving Tenants”.
The four Beacons awarded within this theme demonstrated what can be achieved by fully integrating tenant involvement. They are: Bolton Metropolitan Council; Carrick District Council; London Borough of Croydon and Kirklees Council. These four authorities have shown that:
- tenant involvement has widened and deepened and is part of the organisational culture;
- tenant satisfaction with overall service and opportunities to participate has increased;
- key actions are identified to proactively involve tenants and feed their views into service development;
- partnership working with tenants and other key stakeholders is effective and an effective strategy for assessing, reviewing and tackling equality and diversity issues is in place.
3) The Beacon councils will work closely with the future Housing Corporation Gold Award winners to ensure that best practice is shared across the whole of the housing sector including housing associations.
4) The Beacon councils programme will include three free roadshow events and a learning event tailored specifically to residents. The events will be free, however, participation will be by invitation only. Further details will be released in due course.
5) Launched in June 2005, the Gold Award competition is open to housing associations able to demonstrate outstanding performance in key areas of business. The award aims to identify and share excellence and raise operational standards for the benefit of residents across the sector. This year's themes are: Environmental Sustainability and Empowering Communities. The Gold winners will be announced in May 2007.
6) The Housing Corporation is the government agency responsible for investing in new affordable homes and regulating over 1,500 housing associations across England. Its biggest ever investment programme of £3.9 billion for 2006-08 will fund 84,000 homes; 49,000 of these will be for affordable rent, and 35,000 will be for affordable sale through the Government's new HomeBuy initiative, helping people to get a foot on the property ladder.
