Social Housing Tenants’ Climate Jury Launched with Sector Roadshow

| |by

Meeting between July and September 2021, the Social Housing Tenants’ Climate Jury brought together 30, randomly selected, social housing residents from across the North to learn about climate change and how to work towards net zero at the local level. In November 2020, the Jury launched its report and recommendations to the sector; their views, as social housing tenants, as to how tenants, social landlords, and other place-based organisations can work together to tackle climate change in our homes and neighbourhoods.

The Social Housing Tenants’ Climate Jury was commissioned by the Northern Housing Consortium in partnership with five housing associations: First Choice Homes Oldham, Karbon Homes, Salix Homes, Thirteen Group, and Yorkshire Housing.

Below is a summary of the events the Social Housing Tenants Climate Jury has been profiled at.

 

Official Launch: Northern Housing Summit 2021

The Jury’s final report and recommendations was launched at the Northern Housing Consortium’s flagship Northern Housing Summit. The agenda saw Nick Atkin, Chief Executive at Yorkshire Housing and Donna Cezair, Chief Executive of First Choice Homes Oldham, discuss why their organisations decided to support the Jury project and how they plan to work with the group’s recommendations. They were joined by Jenny Osbourne, Chief Executive of TPAS, and Rashidah Owoseni, Customer Committee member, Salix Homes who discussed their role on the project’s Oversight Panel and how that group worked to ensure the Jury was fair, balanced, and focussed on the tenant experience of retrofit.

Alongside the launch of the report, Summit attendees were also the first to see a video produced telling the story of the Jury as told by the tenant Jury members themselves. This video can be viewed here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBlmqa4Ne54

The panel session discussing the Social Housing Tenants’ Climate Jury, alongside other speakers and breakout sessions including key note addresses by Government Ministers Lord Callanan, Minister for Business, Energy and Corporate Responsibility, and Eddie Hughes MP, Minister for Rough Sleeping and Housing, can be viewed here:

https://www.northern-consortium.org.uk/resources/summit-2021/

 

Tenant Launch: 11th National Tenant Panel Conference

The Northern Housing Consortium and Tenant Advisor’s National Tenant Panel Conference is one of two resident-centric events in the NHC calendar. This year the session provided a brilliant opportunity for the Social Housing Tenants’ Climate Jury to speak directly to fellow-residents to discuss how to make retrofit as much as possible a collaborative effort between landlord and tenant.

Presentations from the 11th National Tenant Panel Conference can be viewed here:

https://www.northern-consortium.org.uk/resources/tenant-panels-2021/

  

PreCop26 All4Climate – Italy 2021

All4Climate formed part of Italy’s work in their role as joint-Presidents of COP26, the United Nations climate summit that recently took place in Glasgow this November. Convened by the Italian Ministry for Ecological Transition, All4Climate aims to bring together climate champions around the world to foster proactive dialogue on the challenges of the climate crisis and deliver on the objectives of the Paris Agreement.

As part of the official program of roundtables, the NHC and partners involved in the Social Housing Tenants’ Climate Jury will hold a meeting offering a first look at the project which placed tenants at the centre of answering the question “how can tenants’, landlords, and others work together to tackle climate change in our homes and neighbourhoods”.

Given All4Climate’s focus on young people and driving ambition, younger members of the Jury joined attendees to discuss their experience of the project. All are welcome to join the conversation and we hope the session will be of interest to both officers and residents looking to better understand how we can bring together the climate and tenant engagement agendas.

The Northern Housing Consortium’s session at All4Climate – Italy 2021, can be viewed here.

 

NEA Warm Week

The Northern Housing Consortium was delighted to discuss the Social Housing Tenants’ Climate Jury at NEA Warm Week. As part of the session Social Housing Session: how to do more and make sure tenants are beneficiaries of decarbonisation the NHC joined speakers representing BEIS, IPPR North, and Parity Projects. NEA were core supporters of the Tenant Jury, with a representative on the project’s Oversight Panel and giving evidence to the Jury on the potential impact on the consumer of the energy transition.

The session explored what needs to be done to improve social housing, how tenants can be engaged to get the most out of schemes and property improvements, and what needs to be done to maximise the benefits of decarbonisation for social housing tenants.

The webinar, and all sessions held as part of NEA Warm Week can be viewed here:

https://www.nea.org.uk/nea-campaigns/warm-homes-week-2021/

 

TPAS Net Zero Week

The NHC also welcomed the opportunity to discuss the Tenants’ Climate Jury as one-part of the wider good work being undertaken across the sector to increase the tenant voice when it comes to tackling climate change through housing retrofit. This was again a collaboration with another important stakeholder in the Jury project, with Jenny Osbourne, Chief Executive of TPAS representing the Tenant Voice agenda on the Jury Oversight Panel.

Sessions that were held as part of TPAS Net Zero week included How do we lead our Organisations to Net Zero, Demystifying the Technology, and Net Zero Carbon – What’s the politics?.

Further information on TPAS Net Zero Week can be found here:

https://www.tpas.org.uk/net-zero-week

 

Parity Projects – Pathways User Group

Although a project focussed on Social Housing tenants in the North of England, the Tenant’s Climate Jury project holds relevant lessons for all those working to make retrofit a resident-centred process across all tenures. Here the Northern Housing Consortium joined Parity Projects and 58 Local Authorities across England to discuss the Jury’s relevance to mixed-neighbourhood decarbonisation. Joining colleagues from BEIS also on the agenda, discussion centred around the role of data in conveying the success of retrofit projects and ensuring green neighbourhoods are resilient against future adaptation needs.

 

More to Come!

Also included in this edition of NHC Member News is details of the Social Housing Tenants’ Climate Jury Webinar Series. Across five sessions, the webinar series aims to highlight the build on the Jury’s final report, exploring the recommendations and the issues raised. Expert speakers, including commentators who originally gave ‘evidence’ to the Jury, will discuss examples of what the group felt represented good practice in decarbonising homes as well as the wider implications of retrofit and climate change the Jury highlighted as core concerns.

To learn more about the Social Housing Tenants’ Climate Jury Webinar series, the topics to be discussed, and importantly how to confirm your attendance, click here.