Get involved!

Key Online Services: More information on tenant involvement

There are many ways for you to get involved in our service. Please see below some of the ways for you to have your say about the service you receive. Use the contact details at the bottom of this page for further information.

Sign up for tenant involvement

If you would like to get involved please complete the online form 'More information on tenant involvement' above. A member of the Tenant Participation Unit will contact you and have an informal chat about the best ways for gathering your views. You will be added to our mailing list and will receive regular Tenant Participation updates which includes invites to citywide meetings, training sessions and conferences.

Ways for you to get involved

1. Join or help form a Tenants Association

Tenants Associations are great ways to show a united front. By working with the Council, Councillors, Police and other agencies you can make real improvements to the area. By becoming a constituted group with a bank account you can even apply for grants to bring money into your area.

More information about Tenant Associations including a list of tenant associations in the city.

2. Would you like to represent your Street or Block?

We have over 70 Block and Street Reps across the city and are always looking for more. These tenants work closely with the Local Housing Office to help report issues of concern such as communal repairs.

Block Reps are elected by their neighbours and are invited to various meetings and forums across the city with senior council officers. Follow this link for more information on Block Reps.

3. Come along to a conference

We hold two conferences a year, one in January and September usually held at the Novotel, Southampton. These conferences are usually packed full of updates from various Council departments together with consultations gathering tenants views on a variety of subjects. For more information please follow this link.

4. Do you mind being contacted by Phone, Email and/or text message?

We are always looking for new ways to talk to our customers and many of our tenants are happy for the council to ring or email them a few times a year to discuss a housing issue. In this way we can get to hear our customers' views and opinions quickly and without them having to leave their home! This works best for short simple questions and issues, and each call shouldn’t last more than 5 minutes.

We have recently set up the facility to carry out quick and simple text based surveys giving you the opportunity the give your views at a place and time convenient to you.

These Panels are well supported with over 200 tenants on the Phone Panel and over 100 on the Email Panel. The Email Panel has been used to discuss issues on Special Lettings and Allocations, tenants' thoughts on Tenants' Link and publicity information about the Concierge Service.

5. Did you receive the latest copy of Tenants' Link?

Tenants' Link is our Housing Magazine that goes out to all 17,000 Tenants and Leaseholders. It is always full of topics and consultations that we need your views on. Check out the latest issue (follow the link on the left) and then get in touch.

6. Would you like to join our Reading Group?

The Reading Group is a group of tenant volunteers who look at some of the council's leaflets, posters and publicity before they are sent out. The role of the Reading Group is to help the council make sure that its publicity information is understandable, well written and will make sense to the public.

The Reading Group have looked at (and changed!) information leaflets including the Special Decorating Scheme, the Junior Neighbourhood Warden Scheme and the Tenant Participation "Having Your Say"

This group really does help the council make sure it communicates better with its customers. If you would like to get involved please contact us.

7. How about becoming a Facebook fan?

The Tenant Participation Unit has recently set up our own Facebook page letting you know about events that are happening across the city www.facebook.com/scctenants