As a regional organisation, London Tenants Federation and our members are made up of elected, democratic, and accountable tenants’ and residents’ associations at the grassroots level. This is the basis on which we would like to see any organisation claiming to represent tenants established. The challenge in making that a reality at national level is principally one of rebuilding solid foundations at the local and regional levels.

Stock transfers, the Right to Buy, rising rents, growing insecurity of tenure and the break-up of communities through estate regeneration have all made it harder for tenants and residents to organise at a grassroots level. At the same time there has been a reduction in funding and practical support from councils to assist in this organisation, and many housing associations are reluctant to encourage democratically elected estate level tenants’ organisations.

Overall, the shift towards individualistic consumerist models of engagement has isolated and disempowered social housing tenants.

These difficulties have also affected representation at borough-wide, metropolitan and regional level. London Tenants Federation is currently the only regional tenants’ federation still in existence. We have seen eleven active borough tenants’ federations and organisations either closed down, or lose funding by councils in London one after another since the Cave Review.

So, if the government genuinely wants to set up a national representative tenants’ organisation, it has to assist in rebuilding tenants’ organisations at all levels, from regions to urban areas, to boroughs and grass roots – financially and with supportive legislation, giving tenants the collective right to be involved in decision-making about our homes. It would need to address the gaps in representation of tenants across the country.

In our view, these are the principles which matter:

• A national representative tenants’ organisation must be made up entirely of tenants and must be accountable exclusively to tenants.
• We want to see a democratic and accountable tenants’ organisation that operates by consensus, especially given the diversity of the tenant movement.
• It would operate in an open, transparent and communicative way.
• It would assist tenants in developing the skills which make them fully able to represent the views of their fellow tenants to their landlords and other bodies.
• We want it to support and promote tenant engagement at all levels in decision-making in relation to our homes.
• A national representative organisation would need a structure that would accommodate the wide regional differences in terms of need and affordability of housing – a non-hierarchal and federal structure.
• A national representative tenant organisation must have a core belief that tenants are citizens of equal worth who should not face discrimination, social exclusion, prejudice or stigmatisation because of their tenure. Their organisation would have to be similarly respected.

These are our views on the type of organisation that would genuinely represent tenants.

Anything else would be paying only lip service to these principles – or, worse still, would consist of a carefully selected forum of yes people, nothing more than a fig leaf and a pretence that tenants are being heard.