Tenant participation structures are poor

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RBH's structures for tenant involvement have seriously degenerated during 2007. The report from independent experts Housing Quality Network, commissioned jointly by the Council and RBH, on RBH's Governance concluded in March that: RBH is substantially behind the field in terms of current good practice in resident engagement for social housing. Residents have not routinely been involved at the outset in strategy, planning and designing services nor in setting and monitoring standards, nor has there been sufficient emphasis on capacity building for residents to take part in governance.

In defiance of the strong township basis of Rochdale borough's life, RBH decided to abolish its Area Boards in January 2006. Their plans to replace them with Area Panels have been disputed and delayed and their terms of reference have still not been agreed.

Not surprisingly, the go-it-alone approach their Tenant Participation Unit adopted in launching initial meetings of the Panels in November produced lower attendances - twenty two tenants in total - than the Area Boards they were replacing. Two of the four, with only two tenants at the Middleton Panel and three at the Pennines one were simply inquorate.

Only two of the proposed four Boroughwide Service Improvement Panels have met at all, and no terms of reference for any of them have yet been agreed as required.

The other route for tenant involvement in RBH's policy and decision making, the Tenants Compact Working Group, has not met since April, although its terms of reference require a meeting before each meeting of RBH's Board.

An opportunity to make real progress in all these areas, a Value for Money Review of Tenant Participation, was wasted as a result of the determination of some RBH Officers to prevent RoFTRA's involvement in or with it. Consequently, the £14,500 paid to the Libra Consultancy was wasted.