It’s time to find out about devolution!
Tuesday 6th of May 2025
If you don’t have a handle on local government devolution yet, and how it will affect tenants and tenant engagement where you are, then the best time to start finding out is now! This was the main takeaway from our most recent LA and ALMO tenant engagement staff meetup.
Our April meetup focussed on the local government devolution agenda, and we were joined by Tpas’s own Caritas Charles to help us work through the various issue and implications. We recorded the conversation with Caritas so, if you would like to hear what was said, you can watch the video here.
In case you missed it, the English Devolution White paper, published last December, sets out the Government’s plan to, amongst other things, create new strategic authorities, give new powers to mayors and reorganise many councils into bigger units by merging district and county councils, for example. You can see the details on the Government website here.
For tenant engagement the key issue is likely to be mergers, with district councils, for example, likely to be brought together with neighbouring councils and the counties above them. Whilst it seems that the day-to-day experience for tenants might not be directly affected, at least not in the short term, management structures certainly will be. Also bear in mind that different areas will be on different timetables – some will have started already.
So, whilst there’s a lot going on, information is in short supply. That’s why it’s important to find out who is leading in your organisation and to make contact. Also, if you haven’t done already, start bringing together tenants and staff across the area. If you already have those connections, then maybe it’s time to take things to the next level!
Here is our checklist of things you might be thinking about...
- What is your council’s stance on devolution?
- How might devolution affect your business plans?
- How will it affect investment in existing stock?
- If you are already in a combined authority what are your existing relationships? Is there a golden thread?
- Which councillors have oversight of devolution or the existing processes?
- What thought if any has been given to consultation with the public and tenants
- Can we embed tenant involvement into strategic housing plans?
- What are the priorities for affordable housing vs social housing?
- What about scrutiny working across organisations to align local housing strategies with safety, transparency and neighbourhood standards and to get groups talking to each other?
- Can you get your groups to know your local authority leads on this and do they have access to regional people like the mayor?
- What’s the consultation plan for your councils with the public and should there be a separate focused council tenant consultation?
- Is there a comms plan for council tenants on this?
About the meetup.
The meetup took place on Zoom on 24th April 2025. We had 18 engagement officers taking part. For the recorded interview with Caritas, we invited participants to share ideas for questions. We finished with ‘open space’ – an opportunity for participants to raise anything at all to the whole group.
Further information
Our next meet up is on Wednesday 16th July and you can book your place here
We also have an online networking group on our Tpas Connect platform. If you would like to join the group, please email lisa.holt@tpas.org.uk
For Tpas Connect info click here