Item 11 - WDC Tenant Participation Strategy 2025-28 - Annual progress report
West Dunbartonshire Council · 13 May 2026
Back to Housing & Communities Committee — 13 May 2026 and its agenda
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WEST DUNBARTONSHIRE COUNCIL Report by the Chief Officer, Housing Housing and Communities Committee: 13 May 2026 __________________________________________________________________ Subject: “Involving You to Improve Housing Services” West Dunbartonshire Council’s Tenant Participation Strategy 2025-28 - Annual Progress Report 1. Purpose 1.1 The purpose of this report is to provide the Housing and Communities Committee with an update on the implementation of “Involving You to Improve Housing Services”, our Tenant Participation Strategy which covers the period 2025-28. 2. Recommendations 2.1 It is recommended that the Housing and Communities Committee: (i) Note the progress and achievements made in relation to the implementation of the strategy’s action plan (ii) Commend the key role played by tenant representatives in the Housing Service’s partnership approach to improving housing in West Dunbartonshire. 3. Background 3.1 The Council has a statutory duty under the Housing (Scotland) Acts 2001 and 2010 to produce and adequately resource a Tenant Participation Strategy and to evidence a strong commitment to involving tenants in shaping and improving housing services. 3.2 Our current Tenant Participation Strategy called “Involving You to Improve Housing Services”, was approved by the Housing and Communities Committee on 20 November 2024. This strategy builds on the positive developments of previous strategies successfully implemented since 2001. 3.3 In addition to being a legislative requirement, involving tenants and other service users in decisions about their homes and communities is a key element of the Scottish Social Housing Charter and expected practice of all social housing providers in their efforts to improve housing services. 3.4 West Dunbartonshire Council continues to be an exemplar organisation in supporting tenant participation activities. In 2018 the Council was the first local authority in Scotland to be awarded Gold Accreditation by TPAS Scotland (Tenant Participation Advisory Service - Scotland). This followed a robust scrutiny of our tenant participation structures and activities and included TPAS ITEM 11
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Scotland examining our practices and interviewing a range of tenants and staff. The service subsequently went through a reaccreditation process and were again awarded a Gold Accreditation in February 2023. 3.5 The work of the West Dunbartonshire Tenants and Residents Organisation (WDTRO) has also been recognised at a national level. In 2025 they received two TPAS awards, Tenant Group of the Year and Outstanding Achievement Award. These were in recognition of their achievements in ensuring that the tenant voice is heard and for their work around transparency in relation to the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) and their efforts influencing the decision to remove the budgeted for surplus within Building Services. 4. Main issues 4.1 “Involving You to Improve Housing Services” is underpinned by the following strategic vision: “West Dunbartonshire’s Housing Services’ vision for tenant participation is one of sharing information with our tenants, future tenants and other service users in a variety of ways; providing opportunities for them to express their views in a way that suits them; listening to and acting on tenants’ views to improve the housing services we provide and allowing our tenants to scrutinise our performance”. 4.2 The strategy has the following eight key aims: • We will improve the culture and practice of involving tenants across housing services. • We will improve feedback to tenants so that we can demonstrate where our tenants and other service users have influenced or shaped housing services. • We will promote and provide a wide range of options for tenants to get involved in. This will include more interactive online networks and virtual meetings to help people be involved from home. • We will encourage the involvement of under-represented groups, such as young people, homeless people, people with disabilities and minority ethnic groups. • We will ensure tenants are aware of the opportunities available to them to influence housing service plans and budgets. • We will assess our performance in line with the Scottish Social Housing Charter and involve tenants in our annual Tenant Report. • We will ensure that the resources we put in place and practices we carry out are adequate to support and develop tenant participation activity. • We will ensure we communicate effectively with tenants and provide good quality, accessible information that tenants want.
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4.3 The strategy sets out a comprehensive series of actions aimed at achieving these key aims over the 3-year period. The full detail of this action plan is attached as Appendix 1 and is summarised below. “Involving You to Improve Housing Services” Year 1 progress summary Action completed 5 Action in progress 44 Check progress of action 0 Action overdue 0 Action cancelled 0 Total 49 Some of the key achievements relating to each of the aims of the strategy during 2025/26 are outlined below. 4.4 Improve the culture and practice of involving tenants across housing services: • Following the development of a Tenant Participation iLearn course, this was added to the induction programme of new housing staff, with existing staff also encouraged to complete this and afforded the time to do from within our management structures. • A staff implementation group has been established with representatives from Building Services, Housing Asset and Investment, Housing Development and Homelessness and Housing Operations, and to improve inter team communication, encourage collaborative working, promote the benefits of tenant participation and to help facilitate the implementation of the action plan. • An annual Tenant Participation Performance Report is produced to promote the outcomes of tenant participation and help demonstrate its purpose and impact to staff and tenants (a copy of the 2025/26 report is attached as Appendix 2 (not available yet)). • Quarterly electronic TP Updates for tenant representatives, Elected Members and staff were produced to maximise awareness of tenant participation activities. • The success of the WDTRO winning two TPAS (Tenant Participation Advisory Service) Scotland Awards in 2025 was promoted widely to highlight the work they do and what they have achieved. • The walkabout process was reviewed and updated to ensure a consistency in approach, maximise their effectiveness and help build positive relationships between tenants and staff.
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4.5 Improve feedback to tenants so that we can demonstrate where tenants have influenced or shaped the housing service: • The Consultation Toolkit used by staff to facilitate effective feedback to tenants when reviewing policies or practices was reviewed and updated to fully align with the corporate consultation process. Consultation summaries continue to be provided as part of the background papers to reports presented to the Housing and Communities Committee to help demonstrate the influence consultation has. • Housing News was used to publicise outcomes from consultations to help encourage more tenants get involved in the future and demonstrate that they can influence decisions and policies. • Tenants and Residents Associations were supported to demonstrate their achievements at a local level as well as using the Housing News to promote their activities more widely. • Tenants were supported to review papers going to the Housing and Communities Committee through the Pre-HACC Forum, so that they have a final opportunity to make their views known through the Housing Convener. 4.6 Promote and provide a wide range of options for tenants to get involved: • We continued to promote a wide range of options to encourage tenants to get involved in a way that suits them. We used the Housing News to advertise tenant group meetings and activities, as well as specific articles on the Joint Rent Group and Scrutiny Panel activities. The WDTRO also have a regular column which they use to promote their activities and encourage tenants to get involved. • We continued to support tenant involvement in scrutinising Housing Services and the Scrutiny Panel’s reports are publicised in the Housing News, on our Tenant Participation webpages and shared with the WDTRO. The Panel also used the Housing News, Clydesider and Dumbarton and Vale Advertiser to advertise and recruit new members. • We supported TRAs to produce posters, flyers, and social media material to promote their activities, meetings, and any specific events that they hosted. • Walkabouts have been promoted to encourage tenants to get involved in their own neighbourhoods. • An easier to read summary of TP Strategy was produced and published on the Council’s website to make the strategy more accessible and user- friendly. • Scottish Housing Day (17/9/25) was used to share photos and comments from tenant volunteers to help encourage more people to get involved and raise the profile of individual TRAs. TRAs and Scrutiny Panel are also now registered with WDCVS to help recruit new members from those looking for volunteering opportunities. 4.7 Encourage involvement of under-represented groups:
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• Regular monthly meetings continued to be held with tenants at the Gypsy/ Traveller site at Dennystoun Forge. The redevelopment of the site is a key focus for them but having a process to ensure that we continue to meet the Scottish Government’s Minimum Site Standards and the introduction of a Site Coordinator role has helped improve communication and ensure that repairs and issues are addressed quickly. • Gypsy/Traveller Cultural Awareness Training was provided by MECOPP for housing staff involved with the Dennystoun Forge residents to help develop better understanding of the barriers and stigma this community can face and promote positive communication and relationships. • We continued to participate in the West Dunbartonshire Equality Forum, and this remains an effective mechanism for developing working partnerships and promoting tenant participation to a wider audience. • We continued links with local groups such as Y-Sort-It who were a guest speaker at the WDTRO’s AGM. We also contacted Members of the Scottish Youth Parliament, and the quarterly TP newsletter is now shared with them to help promote interest in tenant participation. 4.8 Ensure that tenants are aware of the options available to shape housing services: • To ensure tenants are aware of the options available to shape housing services and budgets, we continued to promote these widely through Housing News, our Tenant Participation Updates and online. • Our annual rent setting consultation process continued to develop transparency around the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) which tenants and the Scottish Housing Regulator are looking for. The response rate in the rent setting consultation remained high and this is a key decision that tenants could make their views known on and influence. • Our Joint Rent Group continued to meet bi-monthly, with tenant volunteers and key housing and finance staff working together to make budget processes more transparent and monitoring key budgets to ensure value for money. • New tenants are advised at sign-ups and new tenant visits about their rights to get involved and the opportunities available. The sign-up process was improved with the development and introduction of a new “Getting started in your new tenancy” digital link via Sway, which now includes information on ways to get involved (this form of communication benefits from automatically translating into another preferred language, making it more accessible). 4.9 Make sure that the resources we put in place and practices we carry out are adequate to support and develop tenant involvement: • We continue to review the resources required to support tenant participation and tenant scrutiny and review the Tenant Participation budget annually. There are two officers with a specific remit for tenant participation and
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during 2025/26 they continued to support twelve Tenant and Resident Associations, the WDTRO, Sheltered Housing Forum, Joint Rent Group, pre-HACC (Housing and Communities Committee) Forum, and the Scrutiny Panel. 4.10 Promote the difference tenants can make and the positive benefits of participation to them personally as well to their community: • The personal benefits of participating in tenant activities including training opportunities available, were promoted though the Housing News, TP Updates and on Facebook to help act as an incentive for more tenants to get involved. The training material for groups were reviewed and updated to help support them to operate effectively. • The personal benefits of participating were also highlighted via interviews with individual tenants for the “On the Spot” feature in the Housing News. 4.11 Make sure that we communicate effectively with tenants and provide good quality, accessible information that tenants want: • We continued to ensure that we communicate effectively and provide good quality accessible information that tenants want, primarily through our quarterly newsletter Housing News delivered to all tenants. • We regularly update the content of our Tenant Participation web pages to ensure that they are a useful resource for tenant groups and individual tenants 24/7. • We ensured that all documents published on the Council’s website complied with accessibility standards. • We increased the number of followers and reach of our TP Facebook page, which is used to share local community news, TRA activities, promote consultations and encourage ways to get involved. 5. People Implications 5.1 There are no people implications because of this report. The delivery of the strategy is managed from within existing staffing resources, led by two dedicated Tenant Participation staff members within the Housing Development and Homelessness Team, supported by a broader staff implementation group and with input and the collaboration of staff across the housing service. 6. Financial and Procurement Implications 6.1 There are no direct financial or procurement implications in relation to this report. The action plan attached to the strategy is being delivered from within existing budgets.
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7. Risk Analysis 7.1 The Council has a statutory responsibility to produce and adequately resource the implementation of a Tenant Participation Strategy. Our “Involving You to Improve Housing Services” strategy reflects the priorities and aspirations of tenants and tenant representatives, therefore there is a risk that if its key aims are not met, then this would produce an adverse reaction from tenants, tenant representatives and from the Scottish Housing Regulator and lead to reputational damage for the Council. 7.2 Our Tenant Participation Strategy builds on the achievements made in developing good working relationships with tenants over the years, improving transparency and a joint working approach to involving tenants. The continued delivery of the strategy is therefore essential in demonstrating the Council’s on- going commitment to continuous improvement across Housing Services and putting tenants at the centre of our activities. 8. Equalities Impact Assessment 8.1 Equalities legislation requires that new or significantly changing policies or services and financial decisions should be subject to an assessment of their impact on the wellbeing of certain groups of people. An Equality, Health and Human Rights Impact Assessment was carried out as part of the strategy’s development and found no substantive negative impacts. The recommendation within this report does not alter any existing policy or pattern of service delivery and so is not considered to require an equalities impact assessment. 9. Consultation 9.1 The Strategy was created following a full consultation with tenants, staff, and councillors. Regular updates on tenant participation activities and progress on the action plan are provided at the bi-monthly WDC/WDTRO Liaison meetings. The minutes of these meetings are circulated to staff attendees, all Tenant and Resident Associations, WDTRO members, as well as being publicly available on the Council’s webpage. 10. Strategic Assessment 10.1 The Tenant Participation Strategy is the overarching document setting out the strategic direction for engagement with tenants and future tenants. The implementation of the Tenant Participation Strategy contributes significantly to the Council’s strategic priorities and specifically to ensuring resilient and thriving communities and being an inclusive and adaptable Council. Peter Barry Chief Officer, Housing Date: 16 April 2026
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Person to Contact: John Kerr, Housing Development and Homelessness Manager, Housing Development and Homelessness Team, Housing. email: john.kerr@west-dunbarton.gov.uk Jane Mack, Senior Housing Development Officer (Tenant Participation), Housing Development and Homelessness Team, Housing. email: jane.mack@west-dunbarton.gov.uk Appendices: 1. TP Strategy 2025-2028 action plan 2. TP Annual Performance Report 2025/26 Background Papers: Tenant Participation Strategy 2025-2028 ‘Involving You to Improve Housing Services’ Wards Affected: All