Struggling to Hear, Try Listening.
As someone deeply embedded in the housing sector, both as a tenant advocate and through my personal experiences, I've repeatedly seen and heard the same troubling issue; tenants frequently report serious concerns, only to receive silence or inadequate responses from their housing providers. The Housing Ombudsman has highlighted poor communication as a primary concern for residents, and unfortunately, my own experience mirrors this trend.
Take recent cases, for example:
Peabody faced severe criticism for failing to respond to critical safety concerns, leaving tenants without answers for over 200 days. Resolution came only after sustained pressure, involving MPs and multiple complaints. Such delays not only erode trust but highlight a worrying trend in dismissive communication.
London & Quadrant (L&Q) admitted poor communication after failing to address a tenant’s basic bathroom repairs for 21 weeks, leading to compensation ordered by the Ombudsman due to severe maladministration.
A2Dominion let vulnerable residents endure over a year of damp, mould, and infestation before meaningful action was taken—action only initiated after sustained public scrutiny and regulatory intervention.
These aren’t isolated incidents; they reflect systemic communication failures across the sector. Common patterns emerge - ignored emails, delayed responses, vague promises, defensive attitudes, and a troubling lack of transparency. Such behaviours demonstrate why residents feel frustrated and abandoned.
Regulators are increasingly demanding accountability, highlighting poor communication as a significant issue. The introduction of the Transparency, Influence, and Accountability Standard (TIAS) and Section 22 requirements are meant to force landlords into prompt, transparent engagement with tenants. But regulatory change alone can't address an underlying cultural resistance.
Tenant engagement in its current form often feels performative. Panels, roundtables, and forums claiming to offer the tenant perspective are frequently populated with carefully selected tenants who align comfortably with housing associations' narratives. More often than not, however, these events are dominated by sector insiders eager to profit from selling their wares, insights, and training solutions.
As I’ve discussed extensively through Housing Sector and GreenSquareAccord Residents, genuine critical voices like mine face considerable pushback. My personal experiences include not just dismissiveness but active hostility from GreenSquareAccord, who resorted to legal action designed explicitly to silence critical perspectives.
Increasingly, the housing sector feels dominated by a cycle of events—roundtables, webinars, and conferences—purporting genuine tenant dialogue but frequently devolving into echo chambers. These gatherings rarely confront uncomfortable truths, instead reinforcing the status quo with familiar faces, industry insiders, and token tenants.
Reflect honestly on your own experiences. How many recent roundtables have you attended, only to hear recycled rhetoric about tenant engagement? How often have sector events become reunions, where industry professionals reconnect with colleagues and friends, rather than genuinely engaging with new voices and perspectives?
Ask yourself - how much time have you spent away from your office, away from comfortable virtual meetings, genuinely walking through the estates you manage, listening directly to tenants' frustrations face-to-face? Is the sector ready for the discomfort and genuine accountability that true tenant engagement demands?
These crucial questions underpin my latest conversation on the Housing Sector Podcast, where I speak candidly with tenant activist Jakia Begum from Tower Hamlets Community Housing. Jakia openly shares her exhausting struggle against opaque service charges and a housing provider indifferent to the stress it causes residents—proving the voices are there, but is the sector genuinely listening?
For a deeper insight into the realities tenants face and why the sector's current approach isn't working, tune into our recent episode.
Ultimately, genuine tenant engagement requires not just listening, but responding meaningfully and transparently—even when the truths tenants bring to the table are difficult to hear.
Maybe they don’t speak your corporate language. Maybe they don’t conform to the neatly packaged professionalism you're comfortable with. Their words might be blunt, unpolished, even angry—and why wouldn’t they be? Perhaps they don’t wear the same suits, drink in the same wine bars, or move in the same LinkedIn circles. Maybe, deep down, you see yourself as somehow above them. That’s your issue. That’s your bias. And if you’re serious about change, that’s your responsibility to fix.
Real engagement means stepping out of your echo chamber, out of your comfort zone, and asking the uncomfortable questions. But more importantly, it means staying in the room when the uncomfortable answers come. Not dismissing, not rebranding, not spinning it into a case study—just listening. Because until that happens, engagement is just theatre. And tenants know the difference.
Perhaps it doesn’t fit your business model, perhaps it’s going to dent your year-end figures—but maybe it’s time you stopped profiting from not-for-profit and started providing a service truly worthy of praise. We are ready for the difficult conversations, are you?