Tenant Fiona Brown loves having a voice and helping us make positive improvements for her peers.

The 61-year-old, who has been a tenant for more than 25 years, has noted that over this time there have been significant improvements in our services and communication.

Through her role in our tenant-led Scrutiny Pool, Fiona and her fellow peers have helped to introduce a new tenancy sign-up process to provide better information to new tenants and prompted an annual survey of the grounds maintenance service.

She says: “I am part of a Scrutiny Pool and have helped to instigate changes recommended by the government's White Paper [on social housing]. I would say Progress has been implementing a lot of those changes prior to the Paper coming out. Over a period of time, I have seen changes in attitudes and they are now showing evidence that they are listening to tenants.

"A great deal of this has been due to Progress Housing implementing training of staff in all departments including contractors to reinforce positive attitudes towards tenants. I can see the change in the attitudes when speaking to engineers and frontline staff.”

Fiona (pictured above - left) adds that we have supported her involvement in the tenant-led national group Stop the Social Housing Stigma since its inception in 2017.

She explains: “They have supported the campaign all the way through, and supported me financially to get to meetings. It is important for me to give a voice to tenants who feel they don’t have a voice. Some people believe, because of the way were treated in the past, that there is no point complaining.  They can go to their landlords with a complaint or compliment and things will be done. My role is to convince tenants they can change things.”

Find out more about the Scrutiny Pool here: The Scrutiny Pool | Progress Housing Group (progressgroup.org.uk)

For more information on the government's White Paper on social housing, visit: The charter for social housing residents: social housing white paper - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

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