Somer Community Housing Trust becomes one of the first TPAS
accredited social landlords in the South West
29th May 2009
Somer Community Housing Trust’s reputation for
resident involvement has been cemented with accreditation by the
Tenant Participation Advisory Service (TPAS).
TPAS is a national tenant participation organisation, which
works with social housing residents and landlords to improve the
level and quality of tenants’ influence. Accreditation means that
the association’s resident engagement has been successfully tested
against 29 main criteria looking at how well it knows its residents
and their aspirations. Other areas considered include whether
policies are easily accessible by residents, and if it has robust
processes to ensure accountability to residents for its
services.
Somer Community Housing Trust is one of the first two housing
associations to earn the quality mark in the South West. The chief
executive of TPAS, Michelle Reid presented it to the Trust at a
celebration with residents on Wednesday, 3rd June.
The news comes in the year the Trust celebrates the tenth
anniversary of its stock transfer from Bath & North East
Somerset Council. Since 1999, it has always had a strong, formal
resident involvement structure, with five tenant trustees on its
board. The accreditation process started with a self-assessment in
April 2008 and was followed-up with a ‘reality check’ where an
independent assessor talked to residents and staff, and attended
residents’ meetings.
Angela Gascoigne, managing director of the Trust, said:
‘This has been a long, but worthwhile process
for us. We’re very proud that the Trust was set up from the
beginning with a formal structure that fully involved residents in
decision making. Nevertheless, the high standards demanded by TPAS
are challenging for a large organisation like the Trust to meet,
and we have invested in and developed our resident involvement
structure to stay ahead of the times.’