First North East housing provider to gain Tpas award achieves re-accreditation

Friday 1st of April 2016

East Durham Homes has been awarded Tpas re-accreditation for its work around resident involvement.

Tpas are delighted to congratulate East Durham Homes on their recent accrediation. 

In 2009, the housing provider was the first in the region to gain the accreditation and 6 years on, East Durham Homes is celebrating again after making further improvements in the way it involves and empowers tenants to help shape services.

The award was presented by Jenny Osbourne, Chief Executive of Tpas at an event on 23 March 2016 attended by East Durham Homes’ staff and customers. 

Tpas carried out observations and interviews with tenants, staff and board members of East Durham Homes to produce the final report, highlighting many examples of good practice and innovation in tenant involvement.

In particular Tpas recognised East Durham Homes’ Customer Inspection and Improvement Panel (CIIP), the excellent staff and tenant partnership working across the organisation, the approach to value for money and the work of the Housing Partnership.  Involving customers to shape services is a key strategic objective for East Durham Homes and this goes across all aspects of the company.

Jenny Osbourne, Chief Executive of Tpas said: “Our accreditation sets the bar high for landlords to meet our standards. We expect landlords to demonstrate how they offer residents the chance to be involved in whichever way they want, and we also we look at the relationship the housing organisation has with their residents and how they motivate residents to want to be involved. And that’s what’s happening at East Durham Homes. They are an explanatory example of leading a robust co-regulatory approach to involvement”.

Michael Doyle, East Durham Homes Managing Director said: “It’s really important to us as a company that we keep our customers at the heart of our decision making and service provision to ensure we are delivering what people need and what.  What’s more, we pride ourselves on the fact that customer involvement is embedded in all aspects of the business and I’m delighted that we’ve been recognised again for this.”