The Director of Housing submitted a report to Cabinet and to request that Cabinet recommend to Council to approve the new Resident Involvement and Engagement Strategy – 2025/28.

Cabinet is recommended to:

1.    Approve the draft Resident Involvement and Engagement Strategy (2025 – 2028) and action plan attached to the strategy which outlines how the priorities for resident involvement and engagement will be taken forward.

2.    Recommend to Council to approve and adopt the new Resident Involvement and Engagement Strategy 2025-2028.

3.    Delegate authority to the Director of Housing, in consultation with the Cabinet Member for housing and Communities, on approval of the strategy, to put in place the necessary governance and monitoring arrangements to oversee the implementation and delivery of the strategy as well as to make any minor amendments reflective of legislative changes or best practice.

Cabinet resolved to:

1. Approve the draft Resident Involvement and Engagement Strategy (2025 – 2028) and action plan attached to the strategy which outlines how the priorities for resident involvement and engagement will be taken forward.
2. Recommend to Council to approve and adopt the new Resident Involvement and Engagement Strategy 2025-2028.
3. Delegate authority to the Director of Housing, in consultation with the Cabinet Member for housing and Communities, on approval of the strategy, to put in place the necessary governance and monitoring arrangements to oversee the implementation and delivery of the strategy as well as to make any minor amendments reflective of legislative changes or best practice.

The Director of Housing submitted a report to Cabinet to request that Cabinet recommend to Council to approve the new Resident Involvement and Engagement Strategy – 2025/28.

Councillor Smith presented the report. She thanked the officers, tenants, and leaseholders who were involved in the creation of the report. She emphasised that the strategy involved a broad range of opportunities for tenants and leaseholders to get involved, in informal and formal ways. She commended the team on the report and said that they were really proud of the work they were doing in this area.

Pete Sayers, a tenant with the resident co-design group, further presented the report. He outlined the work that had been undertaken to engage with residents and that the feedback had been that trust had been broken with the Council as landlord. He noted the ways that resident feedback had been integrated into the strategy, including in the strategy’s core principles, vision statement, and resident priorities. He emphasised how collaborative the work had been to create the strategy and how the strategy would allow them to continue undertaking positive work in this area.

Pete Davies, Resident Involvement Manager, said that in their conversations with residents it was clear that they needed to reset the relationship. He discussed the momentum they had built over the past several months and how this strategy would help them continuing pushing this forward.

Councillor Brown commended the work that had went into the strategy and how the strategy would allow them to continue the team’s positive work in this area.

Councillor Chapman thanked the team for their efforts and said that it was an excellent piece of work. He noted how this strategy would support the Council when they were scrutinized by the social housing regulator in a few years’ time and how the housing team was filling an important vacuum with this work.

Councillor Hollingsworth asked how they were working to engage with leaseholders, who were often difficult to get engaged with in this type of work.

The Resident Involvement Manager said that they had surveyed leaseholders regarding their understandings of the lease and are inviting expressions of interest to join a Leasehold Management Policy Review Group in the new year. As a result of that work, it’s expected that leaseholders will recommend that Oxford CC establishes a Leaseholder Forum He noted how the forum would amplify this group’s voice and bring them into the housing team’s efforts to engage with all residents.

Bill Graves, Landlord Services Lead, noted the enthusiasm he had seen from working with leaseholders already and that they were looking forward to working more closely with leaseholders.

Councillor Brown thanked the officers for their work and expressed her enthusiasm for this important area of work.

Cabinet resolved to:

1. Approve the draft Resident Involvement and Engagement Strategy (2025 – 2028) and action plan attached to the strategy which outlines how the priorities for resident involvement and engagement will be taken forward.
2. Recommend to Council to approve and adopt the new Resident Involvement and Engagement Strategy 2025-2028.
3. Delegate authority to the Director of Housing, in consultation with the Cabinet Member for housing and Communities, on approval of the strategy, to put in place the necessary governance and monitoring arrangements to oversee the implementation and delivery of the strategy as well as to make any minor amendments reflective of legislative changes or best practice.