We invited our Gateway Membership Team to the Tpas Conference

On Wednesday 12 July, our Communities team accompanied five members of our Gateway Membership Team (GMT) – Chris, Lily, Simanga, Cheryl and Peter – to the two-day long annual Tpas Conference in Coventry.

The Tpas National Tenant Conference involved two days of up to the minute policy analysis, constructive debates and challenge, practical skills and knowledge and a space to discuss all this with other tenants and housing staff across the country.

It is ideal for residents and anyone who takes an active role with their landlord or in their wider community, therefore it was perfect for our GMT – a group of tenants who represent other tenants.

We invited our GMT along as it gives them the opportunity to develop their skills in supporting their fellow tenants.  

This is what a few members of GMT thought about the conference:

Chris – Chair of the GMT “One of the keynote speakers was Richard Blackway from the Housing Ombudsman, who talked about the new business plan for the Ombudsman service, complaint handling, and the severe maladministration findings against landlords in the past year and how they reached their conclusions. 

Another was Kate Dodsworth, Director of Consumer Regulation at the Regulator for Social Housing, who spoke about the increase in consumer regulation and the challenges for landlords getting ready for them.

I attended an excellent workshop by Rebecca Bryant from Resolve about their anti-social behaviour (ASB) action plan and how to implement it into an organisation. Hopefully she will be able to come and talk to the GMT and perhaps some of our tenants on ASB. 

We all found the workshops very informative, but the most important part of the conference was networking. We met tenants from Cornwall to Newcastle, some old friends and some new and were able to learn from them and bring some good practice ideas back.

This is a very important event on the GMT calendar. Although they are two long, tiring days I know we all enjoyed it and it was very worthwhile.”

Lilly: “The sheer volume of knowledge all under one roof was astounding. The other big bonus was that everyone there was willing to share that knowledge. The next task is to break down all that was learnt and put in to practice.”

Simanga: “It sure was a wonderful and inspiring conference – I got something out of all of the sessions I attended.”

Click here if you would like to learn more about who the GMT are and what they do.