Council tenants: have your say!

This year’s consultation has been planned in partnership with Council tenants and will ask three questions:

•          What do you think of the plan to reduce your living costs by 2020?
•          Do you want the current plan to speed up improvements or slow them down?
•          What else is affecting your cost of living? What else can we do to help?

Last year’s consultation was a step change for the Council, asking tenants how their rent should be spent to reduce their living cost and improve their quality of life. Treble the amount of responses were received than in previous years. Tenants confirmed that they want the Council to build more homes, make homes cheaper to heat and provide services such as broadband, energy advice and a tenant discount scheme to help them reduce costs.

In January 2016, the Council’s budget and five year investment strategy received cross party political support. It set out £1billion of investment in homes and services over the next five years. The 2017/18 budget consultation seeks to build on this, asking tenants what they think of the plan, whether they would like improvements to be sped up or slowed down and any other ways the Council could invest their rent to save them money.

The consultation will run for seven weeks between 10 October and 30 November 2016. Tenants are able to share their views in many different ways, including online, through a survey in the Tenants’ Courier, postcards in local offices, workshops in local neighbourhoods and at the tenants’ conference on 29 October 2016.

Councillor Cammy Day said: “Talking and listening to residents and understanding their priorities and concerns is central to the delivery and development of the service.

“From previous consultations our tenants have already told us that they are facing real difficulties meeting everyday costs.

“This year, we have been investing in ways to save them money. We have established a partnership with a low cost energy company to provide more stable, lower cost energy. This year alone, over 3,000 homes have benefited from new heating systems, new windows, doors and improved insulation. We also launched a tenant’s discount scheme. These consultations really do make a difference so I would encourage all our tenants to get involved.”

The consultation, which can be found at www.edinburgh.gov.uk/tenantsaving closes on 30 November.