City puts tenants in drivingseat for move to local control

Sheffield Council describes the change as a “groundbreaking new project” which will see localised decisions being made to suit the needs of specific neighbourhoods, rather than a “one size fits all” approach across the city.

The change has been announced by Coun Peny Baker, the authority’s cabinet member for housing and regeneration, and will lead to tenants sitting on an advisory group which will work alongside councillors and their officials.

Coun Baker has urged council tenants across the city to get involved and support the scheme.

She said: “This is a really exciting time in the development of housing in Sheffield. This project will look at how we can maintain excellent and value for money Council housing in the city going forward.

“We start this work with a completely open mind about how housing will be managed in the future, and we need tenants to get involved and tell us what is important to them. This will really put tenants in the driving seat.

“The first stage will be to organise the election of tenants to an Advisory Group for the project, and these tenants will then support us to come up with a plan for the full consultation process.

“"We are clear that decisions along the way will be made by asking all tenants in the city for their views.

“It’s also important to ensure that we allow different areas of the city to come up with different solutions, there will be no one size fits all approach to this work.”

Those eligible for election onto the advisory group are tenants, tenants and residents association members or leaseholders. For more details on the scheme call 0114 2930240.