Tenants’ Forum: a look at the rent consultation process

December 12, 2024

By Jacqueline Norwood, TPAS Scotland Executive Director

While housing associations, co-operatives and councils are likely in the midst of their rent consultations for 2025/26, last month, our quarterly Tenants’ Forum discussed this topic, exploring what works, what doesn’t and what tenants would like to see instead. Social landlords and board and committee members may find the key points from the forum useful for consulting tenants next year.

The tenants who attended the forum said their social landlords were using a range of rent consultation methods, including:

  • email
  • text
  • letter
  • use of recognised groups, i.e., registered tenant organisations
  • drop-in meetings across different geographical areas

The key issues, highlighted by tenants, were that information about rent consultations must be accessible, easy to understand and given in different formats, including written and in person.

One tenant shared that, in order to ensure their written content about the consultation was accessible, their social landlord had met with a group of tenants that reviews the organisation’s newsletter to check that the information was easy to understand.

We asked tenants about alternatives to written information, and a local authority tenant suggested having a stall in public areas such as local shopping centres or in community rooms in multi-storey blocks.

When discussing what doesn’t work well during rent consultations, some tenants said they would be less likely to look at their emails, and could miss information sent this way, but said they would be more likely to read a text message.

The tenants’ views highlighted how important it is that social landlords know their tenants’ preferences for receiving and engaging with information as this is critical to ensuring as many as possible take part in their rent consultations.

Our next Tenants’ Forum will be held in February, and it will discuss tenant participation in social landlords’ business plans. Keep an eye on our events calendar for further information. The forum is open to all tenants whose landlord is a member of TPAS.