At a meeting of the MHF on 22 October, Richard Blakeway, the mayor’s director of housing, even concluded the discussion over the disbanding of the group by making a joke of it.



The CESG pointed out that tenants are the most significant group of beneficiaries of the mayor’s housing policies and, therefore, the most important stakeholder group.

Mr Blakeway agreed that it is important to involve communities at each stage of policy development and delivery but then told the CESG to make its representations on the mayor’s housing strategy to the Tenant Services Authority.

Local authority tenants continue to be represented on the MHF, via the London Tenants’ Federation, but tenants of housing associations do not.
But in the absence of the CESG it is hard to see how Mr Johnson will constructively and consistently consult and engage with communities and tenants.

It is unlikely that the ad hoc mechanism proposed of roundtable meetings, task and finish groups and project boards, will offer the necessary breadth of coverage or access to support networks.

Instead, it will result in the isolation of policy development from those people that it is intended to benefit.


Emile Evers, tenant member of the Community Engagement Sub-group (writing in a personal capacity)

Have your say

You must sign in to make a comment