Oxfordshire landlord’s double gold for co-regulation

Published by SOHA for Soha Housing Ltd in Housing

Oxfordshire's Soha Housing has double gold to celebrate with the award of two significant sector accolades.

Tenant Advisor’s Scrutiny and Empowerment Partnership awarded Soha their first 'Gold' for their Co-regulation practice.   It is the first national award of its kind to be launched and Soha was one of the first two housing associations to receive this accreditation.  This was set up to help landlords and their tenants develop and sustain excellent tenant scrutiny and empowerment arrangements.  The Partnership inspectors assess scrutiny arrangements and outcomes for tenants through detailed desktop research and two days of interviewing tenants and staff.

Soha is also a winner of a UK Housing Award 2011 in the ‘involving and empowering communities’ category.  Carole Burchett, Chair of Board and a tenant said, "Soha gives tenants a powerful voice at the level of decision making and governance. I’m really delighted that this work has been recognised by both the Tenant Advisor accreditation and through winning the UK Housing Award.”  Carole is pictured on the winners’ podium, second from left, with fellow co-regulating residents.

Richard Peacock, Chief Executive of Soha said, “It’s important that our tenants can have a real influence on how Soha runs.  We can show how tenants' involvement has made a concrete difference to Soha's service improvement and accountability to tenants.  It's very helpful to have an external reality check on what we're doing and we are very proud to hold the Gold Standard for the Tenant Advisor accreditation.  I also couldn’t be more delighted that our peers at the UK Housing Awards have recognised the hard work of tenants, staff and Board members to get a robust model into place."