The National Tenant Voice is a new organisation for tenants of housing associations, housing co-ops and local authorities (including ALMOs) in England. It is being set up by the government department Communitiies and Local Government (CLG) to give tenants a voice, influence and expertise at national level.

At the heart of the National Tenant Voice will be a National Tenant Council of fifty volunteer tenant council members who will meet to debate and discuss key housing policy issues. Hays Social Housing is working with social landlords across England to recruit 50 tenants to the National Tenant Council, on behalf of CLG. The closing date for applicants is Friday 16 October

More information about Hays Social Housing

The Government's aim is for tenants to have a greater influence over the services they receive. It is supporting the setting up of the National Tenant Voice to help achieve this.

Thousands of tenants are getting their voices heard in the largest ever nationwide consultation with social housing tenants.

The Tenant Services Authority's (TSA) national conversation is a phased consultation, which asks tenants to help design a framework of standards by which their landlord will be governed.

27,000 social housing tenants from across the country took part in the first phase of the TSA’s groundbreaking national conversation. Phase one, which kicked off in January 2009 and ended in March, invited tenants to suggest standards for the framework.

The second phase which started in June and ends in September, offers tenants the opportunity to fine-tune the TSA draft social housing landlord standards that will apply to all social housing landlords in England from 2010.

Join the National Conversation

The consultation on the draft standards runs until 8 September. The final phase will be a statutory consultation which will be launched in the autumn.

The Tenant Services Authority (TSA) is the new regulator for homes owned by housing associations and co-operatives (mutual ownership properties). The TSA is also responsible for the services provided by landlords to shared owners. As an independent regulator it has its own Board of directors, including tenant representatives, who steer the executive team.

From Spring 2010, the TSA hope to be able to set standards for council tenants and tenants of arm’s length management organisation (ALMO) homes too. The legislation that set up the TSA does not, however, give them the power to set standards for leaseholders or for people who have used their Right to Buy. These people are covered under different legislation that sits outside of the remit of the TSA.

It is the TSA’s job to ensure that landlords deliver high quality services to tenants and that landlord organisations are run properly. Where there are shortcomings the TSA will step in and take action to improve things.