THE Tenants Participation Advisory Service (TPAS) has recognised the meaningful work Mid Devon District Council’s housing services teams have been doing and how they communicate with their tenants.

As one of five social landlords in the South of England to be nominated for this award for Excellence in Tenant Engagement, the council will find out in early February whether it has been successful.

The council’s submission included information on the work it does to promote tenant involvement with particular reference to how it has worked with tenants on a number of service reviews.

The Chairman of the Tenants Together (TT) group, supported the application as did Cabinet Member for Homes Cllr Ray Stanley, who stated that he appreciates the work that the TT group does in scrutinising performance and challenging Officers, where necessary.

As a result of a recent service review undertaken by tenants on the TT group, there have been changes to the procedures to the way in which void properties, that is, those which are empty, are managed.

As a result, the council is expected to save more than £175,000 in the next four years through ideas that have come from the tenants themselves.

One area of tenant engagement which has been particularly successful is the increased use of social media (Facebook and Twitter). This way of communication is easy and a quick way of getting key messages across.

A regular newsletter is also produced, with contributions from the Tenants Together group featuring prominently.

Cllr Stanley said: “I believe the impact of our Tenants Together group is delivering meaningful outcomes and help to focus the Housing Service in providing a cost effective and improving service to all our tenants.

“They make a valuable contribution in discussions to performance and service reviews. Their work has been thorough and thought provoking, may they continue.”