Involving people

Death and taxes were traditionally the two things we could all be certain of in life. We can now safely add a third certainty - regulation - following Grant Shapp’s announcement that the Tenant Services Authority’s regulatory framework will continue.

So, if the regulatory framework and, through it, ‘co-regulation’ between landlords and tenants is set to continue, then a powerful case can be made to take a look at tenant mentoring, especially in the light of our extensive experience of mentoring housing staff over the past few years.

Despite current and previous economic downturns, mentoring is thriving. Since the 1980s and in both the private as well in the public sector, professional mentoring has grown in popularity across the UK.

Attending the Tenant Participation Advisory Service’s national conference in Birmingham recently and speaking to dozens of tenant and landlord representatives, there appeared to be genuine interest in tenant mentoring. For many organisations and individuals the concept is not new - the Chartered Institute of Housing, TPAS, Resident Involvement Champions and many individual organisations have, to varying extents, been along this road.

Our 2009/10 programme had more than 100 mentees, supported by a similar number of mentors from across England. There is now an opportunity to review lessons from existing staff mentoring schemes, such as those run by the CIH, as well as the diverse tenant mentoring programmes that exist and to construct a local tenant mentoring programme.

Over the next few weeks, we will be consulting to see if there is an appetite to construct such a model.

If the current regulatory framework is to continue to work effectively, then the involvement of well-informed tenants is of paramount importance. Mentoring can ensure this is the case.

Clifton Robinson is chief executive of Housing Diversity Network