Embedding Lived Experience From Local Voice to National Influence
Wednesday 18th of March 2026
By Caritas Charles, Head of Policy, Tpas
On 10 March, I had the opportunity to speak at the Securing the Future of Council Housing Summit in Leeds, as part of a panel workshop focused on one of the most pressing challenges facing our sector: how we embed lived experience and resident needs at the heart of council housing.
Alongside an excellent panel including Cllr Portia Mwangangye of Southwark Council, Stella Brown from the Association of Retained Council Housing and Nic Bliss from Stop Social Housing Stigma Campaign, the session explored a critical shift taking place across housing. We are moving from engagement as consultation to engagement as influence.
A sector under pressure and a moment of opportunity
Across England, councils are being asked to do more than ever before. Build new homes. Retrofit and decarbonise existing stock. Rebuild trust with residents. All while operating within tight financial constraints and an increasingly robust regulatory environment.
At Tpas, our starting point is simple. None of this works without residents.
What is changing now is not just the expectation of engagement, but its status. With the introduction of the Social Housing Regulation Act and Tenant Satisfaction Measures, resident voice is no longer optional. It is central to how landlords are judged, regulated and trusted.
But regulation alone does not deliver meaningful influence. That was the core tension we explored in Leeds.
The gap between structure and influence
One of the strongest themes from the workshop was the gap between having engagement structures and delivering real influence.
Many organisations now have panels, scrutiny arrangements and consultation processes in place. However, as highlighted in sector research and insights from the Social Housing Resident Panel, residents often still feel that they are heard but not listened to. They are involved but not influential. They are consulted but decisions are already made.
This kind of engagement risks doing more harm than good. It can erode trust and reinforce the very disengagement it is meant to address.
At Tpas, we have consistently argued that meaningful engagement must go beyond opportunity. It must demonstrate impact.
What good looks like and what needs to change
The discussion reinforced a growing consensus across the sector. Effective resident engagement is built on four key foundations.
Inclusion, not assumption. Residents are not a single voice. If engagement only captures those with the time, confidence or familiarity to participate, it is incomplete by design. We must actively reach those who are seldom heard.
Transparency and feedback. Engagement without visible outcomes quickly becomes tokenistic. Residents need to see how their input shapes decisions and where it cannot, they need to understand why.
Real routes to influence. Structures matter, but only if they carry weight. Resident insight must be embedded into governance, service design and performance oversight, not positioned at the margins.
Culture over compliance. Engagement is not a system. It is a culture. Organisations that do this well do not see engagement as a requirement, but as a fundamental part of how they operate.
These principles are reflected in the Tpas National Tenant Engagement Standards and wider sector guidance. The challenge now is consistency and scale.
From local experience to national change
A key focus of the session, and where Tpas continues to push the conversation, is how we move beyond local engagement to national influence.
Residents are experts in how housing policy plays out in reality. Yet too often, their insight remains at the local level.
If we are serious about a council housing revolution, then lived experience must shape national policy development, funding decisions, regulatory frameworks and public narratives around council housing.
This means creating clearer pathways for resident voice to inform national debates. This could include structured panels, representative bodies or stronger links between local engagement and national advocacy.
It also means tackling the barriers that prevent this from happening. These include confidence, access, representation and organisational culture.
The role of the sector and the coalition
One of the most constructive parts of the workshop was recognising that good work is already happening across the sector.
From co design approaches to scrutiny models and work to challenge stigma, there is no shortage of innovation.
The challenge is not starting again. It is connecting what already works, scaling it effectively and ensuring it influences decision making beyond individual organisations.
For Tpas, this is where we see our role clearly. We support landlords and residents to turn engagement into influence. We work to ensure that lived experience is not just heard locally, but felt nationally.
What happens next
The workshop closed with a set of key questions that will continue to shape this agenda.
How do we ensure lived experience meaningfully informs national housing policy
How do we strengthen current engagement models in practice
How do we move from participation to power
These are not new questions, but they are becoming more urgent.
The direction of travel is clear. The sector is moving toward a model where accountability, transparency and resident influence are fundamental.
The task now is to make sure that shift is real, consistent and lasting.
At Tpas, we will continue to work with members and partners across the sector to ensure that resident voice is not just included, but influential in shaping the future of council housing.