Midland Pilot Scheme to Give Power to the People!

Matrix Housing Partnership has been chosen to run a pilot scheme to discover how housing associations can give people more power over where they live and the services they receive.

Matrix is a partnership between Accord, Ashram, Caldmore, Rooftop, Trent & Dove and Trident housing associations and WATMOS Community Homes which together provide 25,000 homes across the Midlands region.

Tenants of bchs, Redditch Co-operative Homes (RCH), Fry Housing Trust and Moseley and District Churches Housing Association (all part of the Accord Group) will also be involved in the pilot.

The Tenant Services Authority, the national social housing regulator, has selected Matrix to run a pilot scheme to develop local standards for how residents should be involved in shaping their homes and the services they receive. The £8,000 project will begin next month and run into 2010.

The project is being led on behalf of Matrix by the Accord Group, which is the body accountable for ensuring it is successful.

Dr Chris Handy OBE, Chair of the Matrix Strategy Group, said: “Matrix has been at the forefront of giving people more control over their communities for several years now, so we are delighted to be running this pilot scheme.

“We will be working with many, many tenants over the coming weeks and months to find out what’s important to them and how they want to be involved in influencing the way housing associations work. This will then help us to develop a framework which we hope can be used by housing providers locally, regionally and nationally.”

The project is one of 37 housing projects from across the country which has been selected as a Local Standards Pilot by the TSA.

Some 185 organisations answered the TSA’s invitation to bid for funding of up to £9,000 to support the development of agreements between landlords and their tenants to develop 'local deals'.  Grants totalling £281,000 have been awarded.

Peter Marsh, TSA Chief Executive, said, “We have had a fantastic response to our invitation and were very impressed with the high standard of all the bids we received.  All the successful bidders such as Matrix have shown real innovation and their plans are fantastic examples of good practice which can be shared across the sector.”

In July the TSA invited providers such as housing associations, local authorities and arm’s-length management organisations  to make bids of up to £9,000 to support the development of agreements between landlords and their tenants to develop 'local deals'.