Housing Minister to provide training funds for tenant panels

Housing Minister Grant Shapps has launched a £535,000 residential training programme for social housing tenants to give them the skills needed to represent their neighbours on tenant panels.

These panels seek to resolve local disputes such as repairs and anti-social behaviour.

The funding is expected to train 1,500 people on eight courses and there will be opportunities for tenants to work towards accredited qualifications.

Charities, benevolent societies and philanthropic bodies can apply to the Government for a share of the £535,000 to deliver the courses.

Social landlords will be expected to work with tenants to set up the panels and to make detailed information available to them so that their performance can be properly scrutinised and assessed.

Mr Shapps said: “Social tenants know when things are going wrong with their neighbourhoods. They should be able to expect local solutions to local problems, and not have to wait for a remote organisation from Whitehall to take over.

“I want as many tenants as possible to sit on tenant panels, so they have control over their own homes and their own lives and can use their local knowledge to improve their area.”

Baroness Newlove, the Government's champion for active safer communities, said: “By building a base of knowledgeable people in neighbourhoods who can share and mentor others we will help create that web of active communities that forms the foundations of the Big Society.”