Scrutinising our Successions process

Our Tenant Scrutiny team regularly take on projects to test whether the tenant voice being heard and to make sure our tenants are at the centre of everything we do.

One of our core values is that we treat all of our tenants fairly and with respect, regardless of age, gender, ethnicity or religious belief.

Recently our Scrutiny team, along with some of our Involved Tenants, took a look into our Successions service to make sure that it’s living up to this value.

What is Succession?

Succession is where a tenant might be allowed to carry on living in a property if someone, usually the lead tenant, passes away.

When we’re deciding on whether someone can carry on a tenancy, it’s important for us to make sure that everyone is treated fairly throughout the process and that it’s easy for tenants to access the service.

Our review

For this review, we interviewed members of staff and investigated 218 cases of Succession logged between April 23 – December 23. We also looked at 5 complaints that we received about the service during this time.

Our research found that, overall, there’s no difference in who can carry on a tenancy based on how they identify, for example age, gender, ethnicity or religious belief. This is great news as it reaffirms our commitment to equality within all of our services!

What else did we look into?

We also looked at how easy the service is to understand and use. During a time that can be very stressful and emotional, we want to make sure that you can stay in your home if you’re entitled to - and that you’re fully informed of what that process will be and kept up to date throughout.

We’ve already updated the website to make this clearer and still offer advice through our Hub. Our Hub can also offer translation services, if English is not your first language, to make sure that this doesn’t stop you from using our services.

We’re also reviewing at all of our communications during a Succession application, to make sure they’re as informative and easy to understand as possible.

Updating your information

So that we can continue to monitor and review our services in this way, it’s really important that you keep us up to date with your information. Not only does this help us to keep an eye on the service we offer, but it means that if ever you need to use the service it could make the process easier.

“Unless you tell us [your up to date information] we don't know if decisions we've made are unintentionally harming minority groups, we cannot make reasonable accommodations for things that you might need, and we aren't able to make changes that are fair and equitable to all… We cannot reasonably test the impact of any of our decisions without understanding who our customers are.” – John, Involved Tenant

If you would like to find out more information about succession or updating your information, take a look here.

This is one of many projects that our Scrutiny team run throughout the year - and we need you to hold us to account and make sure that we provide services that you need. If you would like to join one of our Involved Tenant groups and get your voice heard, click here for more information.