Tenant empowerment programme
The coalition agreement published on 20 May 2010 outlined plans to promote devolution and give communities greater powers to shape local developments and local services. A range of ‘community rights’ were subsequently enshrined in law by the Localism Act which was given Royal Assent on 15 November 2011.
The ‘Tenant empowerment programme’ provides funding and support for social housing tenants to engage in, manage or control local services:
- Setting up tenant panels.
- Taking up training and supporting opportunities.
- Exercising their ‘Right to Manage’.
- Taking up opportunities to manage local housing services, such as repairs and estate management, through the Tenant Cashback and Community Cashback schemes.
- Exercising their ‘Right to Transfer’.
Following the abolition of the Tenant Services Authority, the Department for Communities and Local Government took responsibility for running the tenant empowerment programme on 1 April 2012.
In March 2016, the government published an interactive map showing the location of community rights projects.
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