I'm a tenant ... get me out of here!

Among the tenants who became involved is 76-year-old Winnie MacCallum. She joined her nearest local housing organisation and is being trained on the fundamentals of housing management. She should be looking forward to putting her learning into practice in November, when the transfer date arrives.

But instead, like many others, she's wondering what she's let herself in for.

"Of the four people in my local housing organisation, Victoria Housing Association, three, including myself, are pensioners," she says. "The workload is heavy and I don't think everyone is capable of taking it all in." Four other LHO members threw in the towel midway through training and haven't yet been replaced.

The situation in Glasgow has highlighted the problematic issue of tenant participation in decision-making. Glasgow's plans go much further in terms of involvement than many English models. But many are questioning how successful tenant involvement is.

Figures on tenant involvement show how patchy performance is. According to the Housing Corporation's Study of Tenant Participation in RSLs, published in June 2001, 1650 registered social landlords in England have at least one tenant sitting on their management board. However, it also revealed that 35% of housing associations do not have a specific budget for tenant participation.

What's the problem?
Often the trouble is that tenants who join management boards lose their independent voice, says Alf Chandler, chair of the Tenants' and Residents' Organisation of England. He says that once a tenant becomes a full member of a board, their primary duty lies with the housing association and this can restrict their hope to be, above all else, a representative of the tenants.

"Sooner or later they end up getting lost in the system," says Chandler. "If it looks official, it looks as if they have sold out. In the eyes of other tenants, the tenant board members just become another part of the management." Chandler puts this down to two main causes: the formality of work on a management board, and what he calls "them-and-us syndrome".

Sometimes, of course, tenants don't have the skills for what is a very demanding role, or don't have the time to devote the proper attention to it. Life is tough on a management board, says Fola Ogunjobi, a National Housing Federation policy officer specialising in tenant participation. "There are plenty of difficulties that a tenant faces in becoming a board member. Added to a lack of experience, formal meetings and having to deal with professionals can make people lose confidence."

The lack of a clear-cut role for tenant representatives is also part of the problem, according to Mark Lupton, policy officer with the Chartered Institute of Housing. "It's uncertain what RSLs are trying to achieve by getting tenants on their boards," he says. "It neither treats tenants as customers nor gives them real power to make decisions. I don't know if tenants want to have to join a committee in order to get good service."

Another difficulty with tenant participation, according to Lupton, is that a "fair percentage" of housing associations assume that tenant board membership satisfies their regulatory obligations. On the contrary, he says, they have an obligation to go further. "Good housing associations have tenant board members, but they also go out and get their tenants' views by focus group," he says.

The Housing Corporation regards board membership as only one aspect of tenant involvement, advocating that "associations should consider a wide range of methods by which they can use tenants' knowledge and skills". The corporation's community training and enabling grant programme is making roughly £11m available over the next three years to encourage RSLs and tenants to develop innovative methods of participation. This, it is hoped, will spur more associations on to making greater strides in the area.

What are the advantages?
But tenant board members can be invaluable to their housing association, says Fola Ogunjobi of the NHF: "They spell out who the homes belong to, what the housing association is and what it is there for."

Carole Bailey agrees. As a tenant board member for 1066 Housing Association in Hastings, East Sussex, she thinks her ability to "ask the ordinary questions" has proved invaluable. "Independent board members usually have specialisms," she says. "My specialism has been to look at things from a tenant's point of view."

Angela Clapp, who has been a tenant on the board of Westlea Housing Association of Chippenham, Wiltshire, since September 2000, says: "Training is given to all board members. All of us, including those with a housing background, need to be trained." Subjects covered in her time have included finance, governance, regulatory codes and human rights. Clashes of interest between tenants' representatives and other board members get hammered out in the boardroom until everyone reaches a united position.

"I come to the meetings as a board member – my allegiance lies with the association. But the association also includes all the tenants, and their views are always taken very seriously," she says.

Other associations, too, are ahead of the pack in their approach. On top of having four tenants on its board, Cornwall-based Penwith Housing Association has set up stakeholder panels to canvass views on various aspects of the housing service. The idea is to let tenants choose which areas they are interested in without placing to many demands on their time. "We let tenants know how much effort we're looking for in each case, and generally they will only have to attend three meetings," says Janice Warnock, Penwith's senior community involvement officer.

Kent-based Broomleigh Housing Association has tried to broaden its participation strategy by targeting groups which have tended to be left out in the past, such as young people. Youth panels and events at which people are asked what changes should be made on their estates, have become part of its tenant consultation process. A third of Broomleigh's board are tenants.

These examples aside, Phil Morgan, chairman of the Tenants Participation Advisory Service says there is still a need for housing associations across the sector to "re-orient themselves towards their tenants". Having tenants on boards is but one way of achieving participation, Morgan says, but if it achieves little and is seen as ineffective, then there is a risk that apathy will set in. "It's fine to follow the idea of letting a thousand flowers come forth, but when muddles don't work, that's when people become frustrated."