By Toria Buzza, Head of Community & Tenant Involvement
At ForHousing, we’re committed to placing you at the heart of everything we do. We know we don’t always get things right and we’re honest about that. But we are listening, we are learning, and we’re working hard to act on what tenants, like you, tell us.
Our recent Involved Tenant Away Day brought tenants and colleagues together to connect, share experiences, and talk openly about how we can improve services. More than anything, it reminded us just how powerful it is when we learn with tenants, not just about tenants.
An involved tenant is a tenant who volunteers their time to work closely with us, sharing their feedback, insights and real-life experiences to help shape services and make positive improvements for all tenants.
Why days like this matter
Tenants often tell us how valuable it is to spend time together, not just discussing services but getting to know each other. Involvement isn’t only about meetings or policies; it’s also about friendship, confidence and connection.
The away day gave us the time to have real conversations, understand your experiences as tenants and make better decisions about how we communicate with you and deliver services.
Bringing people into the same room allows us to:
- Build stronger relationships between tenants and colleagues
- Understand what really matters to tenants
- Celebrate what’s going well
- Hear honestly where things need to improve
- Work together to develop solutions
Celebrating your impact
We spent time recognising the achievements of all our involvement groups over the last year. These are made up of tenants who volunteer their time to work with us on specific topics such as our Repairs and Service Excellence Group, Community Voice Groups and Scrutiny plus many more. They share their experiences, challenge us, and help shape how services are designed and delivered.
Tenants in these groups have:
- Challenged and improved services such as gas repairs and pest control
- Helped shape new community funding processes
- Reported local issues and driven neighbourhood improvements
- Influenced new approaches to repairs and neighbourhood working
- Played a vital role in reviews on tenant responsibility repairs, pest control and gas servicing
- Taken part in scrutiny, complaints panels, review groups and community projects
Your contribution is helping us to provide safer homes, better communication, clearer processes and more customer-focused services.
You can see a full list of all the ways tenants have made a positive impact by working with us by visiting our ‘What’s been done this year’ web page by clicking here. We will also be publishing this 2025 / 2026 outcomes in May.
Learning about Elevate360 and how your voice guides it
Tenants also heard about Elevate360, our new way of designing your housing services, to improve the experience you have with us, from repairs, to lettings, to communication, to neighbourhood support.
Much of Elevate360 is shaped directly by tenant insight, including:
- Wanting better, clearer communication
- Wanting colleagues to understand your needs
- Wanting stronger relationships and more transparency
Tenants will continue to be involved as this work develops. We understand the importance of listening and learning from you and acting on what you tell us. More information on Elevate360 will be shared soon.
A big part of the day focused on communication; an area tenants consistently tell us needs improving. You shared your experiences of:
- Not always being kept informed
- Having to chase updates
- Communication feeling unclear or inconsistent
We shared the changes already underway, including improvements to how we track communication and use tenant feedback to drive service improvements. But we know there is more to do, and your feedback is guiding our next steps.
Continuous Improvement Plans
We also heard from our Data & Analytics Team, who talked us through the work happening behind the scenes to improve services. They explained how we use tenant feedback, from surveys and complaints, to create something called Continuous Improvement Plans.
These plans help us spot what isn’t working well, understand why, and make changes that improve the service you receive. Tenants were really interested to hear how your feedback directly shapes these improvements and helps us do better.
A key theme in the plans across all service areas is communication, and we are working closely with teams to look at how we can improve the way we do things to make sure you are satisfied with the service you receive.
Hearing directly from you is the most important part of these sessions. Here’s what some tenants shared on the day:
1
“It’s good to be involved… you get a wider view of how the organisation works. Sometimes you only see the negatives, so it’s nice to see the positives and that they are trying very hard.
“There’s such a wide range of people in the room… colleagues, tenants and representatives of different groups. It’s good to get everyone together and hear what each group is doing.”
— Grace, Salford Involved Tenant
2
“It’s been an interesting day… lots of new things mentioned and I met a lot of new faces.”
— Wayne T, Salford Involved Tenant
3
It has been very informative and nice to get our points across.”
— Janine C, Fitton Hill Involved Tenant
4
“I’m pleased we had the chance for dialogue with ForHousing, especially around communication, and to see how it has improved.” — John C, Salford Involved Tenant
5
“I’ve learnt so much today… and catching up with my friends has been great.”
— Sandra O, Stockbridge Village Involved Tenant
6
“Coming together today has been really great… These kinds of days need to be regular so we can talk, resolve issues and work together to improve services.”
— Steph T, Stockbridge Village Involved Tenant
These comments mean a lot — and they help us understand what you value, what works well, and where we need to focus next.
Our vision is to positively impact the lives of social housing tenants. To do that, we need to keep listening, keep learning and keep improving.
Thank you to every tenant who joined us, shared feedback, challenged us and supported us. We’re excited for what we’ll achieve together in 2026.
If you’re interested in getting involved, we’d love to hear from you. We welcome tenants from all backgrounds to share their views and help shape our services. You can find out more on our ‘Get Involved’ page here.
