In our efforts to support and strengthen social housing tenants’ voices in London, we have established a new non-voting membership for individual tenants and residents’ associations, tenant managed organisations and co-operatives, in addition to our core membership.
We are also providing more opportunities for tenants’ representatives to share, exchange and learn from one another and together, to seek improvements to existing social rented homes and development of new ones.
We are bringing together networks of tenant representatives focused on particular single issues that many tenants are concerned about and subregional networks where there may be common issues across borough boundaries – such as large-scale developments. The network meetings are being held quarterly.
Across a range of these meetings, there will be opportunities to engage in discussion
- about housing issues that impact social housing tenants and residents across London or parts of London
- how the Mayor of London’s policies impact – at the local level
- how our associations and organisations can more effectively represent residents on our estates, streets or neighbourhoods
- how we might campaign more effectively for policy changes
SINGLE ISSUE NETWORK MEETINGS
Fuel Poverty & (Carbon) Net Zero: Many people live in fuel poverty due to the poor quality of homes, which are not energy efficient, and have rapidly rising energy prices.
Overcrowded Homes: Social renters in London are almost twice as likely to be overcrowded than those outside of London and fifteen times more likely to be overcrowded than England’s homeowners as a whole. We have insufficient existing social rented family-sized homes available or being developed. This is detrimental to families’ health and well-being and increased the impact of COVID-19.
Rents & Service Charges: Rents have risen since 2021, after four years of 1% rent reductions (2016-2020). Many tenants pay different amounts of rent than their neighbours for the same size and type of accommodation because they have different tenures (e.g., social and affordable rent). Service charges also vary widely across social housing landlords, and many tenants feel that their service charges increased rapidly during the four years of 1% rent reductions.
Fire & Building Safety, repairs and major works: Many tenants experience problems in getting repairs carried out by landlords and have problems with landlords and contractors during major works. Post Grenfell, many tenants fear their blocks of flats are not in a safe, that compartmentation has been breached, and or there is no escape plan for older or more vulnerable people should they need to leave their homes in event of a fire.
We also support the Estate Watch network meetings, with Just Space These are exclusively for tenants’ groups going through the processes of estate demolition.
For more information on the single issues networks, contact joseph@londontenants.org
SUB-REGIONAL NETWORKS
We have divided London into four sub-regions, determined in part by the opportunity and growth areas and transport connections set out in the Mayor of London’s London Plan.
Central Corridor: This contains the Cental London Activity Zone and comprises the boroughs of Camden, the City of London, City of Westminster, Haringey, Islington, Kensington and Chelsea, Lambeth, Lewisham, Southwark, and Wandsworth.
East: This sub-region includes the Olympic growth boroughs, the London Legacy Development Corporation Area and some of London’s largest Opportunity Areas. It comprises the boroughs of Barking and Dagenham, Bexley, Enfield, Greenwich, Hackney, Havering, Newham, Redbridge, Tower Hamlets, and Waltham Forest.
South: The South London sub-region, by comparison, has far fewer or smaller Opportunity Areas. It comprises the boroughs of Bromley, Croydon, Kingston upon Thames, Merton, Richmond upon Thames, and Sutton.
West: The West London sub-region includes the second Mayoral Development Corporation Area – the Old Oak and Park Royal Development Corporation and large Opportunity Areas in Hounslow and Hillingdon. It comprises the boroughs of Barnet, Brent, Ealing, Hammersmith and Fulham, Harrow, Hillingdon, and Hounslow.
Sub-regional meetings provide opportunities for greater collaboration and co-operation between tenants’ groups (housing association and council tenants’ and residents’ associations, tenant management organisations and co-operatives) across boroughs.
For more information on the sub-regional networks please email sarah@londontenants.org
Here is a link to more information on LTF – our membership structure, relationships with other voluntary and community sector organisations and some of the things we do.