Social media offers a new and immediate way of getting feedback and involving tenants who may not want to come to meetings or use traditional forms of communication.
The minister for housing at the CIH conference talked about ‘Tenants' power and establishing tenants' panels. Tenant Panels could be established on TenantBook for every single social housing landlord in the UK. Everyone interested in housing whether they are a tenant, board member, councillor, employee or minister would therefore be able to see what the issues are; using one site for all social housing landlords.
We already have a large number of tenants and organisations using TenantBook and you can see people already helping each other. Because there is no cost, it is an inexpensive yet effective way of engaging with tenants and other stakeholders.
One such group is the Essex Scrutiny Panel Consortium. The Scrutiny Panel members have joined TenantBook then formed their own group within TenantBook. This is a self help group that will help them tackle any problems or issues they have in the future. The group can use TenantBook to post meeting dates and other information about the Panel. They can also contact other Scrutiny Panels or tenant groups in other parts of the country through TenantBook. TenantBook will enable them to talk to other groups and talk to each other and post information online to keep members up to date with what they are doing.
As this site is was only established in July 2010 we expect that it will grow massively over the next year as it caters specifically for housing organisations.
Our aim is to link up the eight million people who are interested in social housing in the UK to develop best practice across the sector.
For more information go to www.TenantBook.co.uk
