Tpas has warned that devolution risks repeating the housing sector’s past mistakes unless residents, not just regions, are given real decision-making power.
The organisation, which has championed resident voice in social housing for more than 35 years, made the call in a new policy paper, From Devolution to Participation, published as England moves further into devolved government under prime minister Andy Burnham.
The report warns that as housing powers move away from Westminster, residents must be given a clear role within new regional structures to ensure that mistakes of the past are not repeated.
It says the government must avoid creating another layer of decision-making that is disconnected from the people it serves, and argues resident voice should instead become a defining feature of England’s devolved housing system, shaping investment, regeneration and the future of local communities.
Among its recommendations, the paper calls for every combined authority in England to establish a Regional Resident Voice Framework linked to housing, regeneration and investment decisions. It also recommends setting up regional resident advisory panels, linking tenant scrutiny evidence to strategic housing investment, supporting tenant-led organisations and ensuring residents receive clear feedback on how their involvement has shaped decisions.
Jenny Osbourne, chief executive of Tpas, said: “The country and the housing sector have learned, often through tragic and painful experience, what happens when residents aren’t listened to. We cannot afford to repeat those mistakes as power moves from Westminster into the regions.
“Devolution is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to redesign how housing decisions are made as power is moved from the centre of government to regional and local decision-makers. Let’s not waste it by creating new institutions that are no more connected to residents than the ones they’re replacing.
“Real devolution isn’t just about giving communities more local leaders. It’s about giving them a genuine voice in the decisions that shape their homes, neighbourhoods and futures. Only then will devolution achieve what it has set out to do: improve people’s lives.”
Caritas Charles, head of policy at Tpas and author of the report, said the sector had built better ways of listening to residents at an organisational level, but that this insight “rarely reaches the people making strategic decisions about housing, regeneration and investment”, calling this “a missed opportunity”.
“If combined authorities are going to shape the future of our communities, they need to start treating lived experience as evidence, not anecdote,” he added. “Resident voice should sit alongside data, finance and policy as a core part of decision-making.”
Main image: Jenny Osbourne, chief executive, Tpas
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