Fran Bevan reflects on the transition from local authority to stock transfer to mutual in Merthyr Tydfil.
Soon after becoming a tenant of Merthyr Tydfil County Borough in 2006 I attended a tenants conference. The topic turned out to be stock transfer. I asked a number of questions and during the break was approached by Claire Payne, a tenant support officer, and asked if I would be interested in getting involved with the process. And so it began!
I had chosen to apply for an over-50s bungalow because of severe arthritic knees, having been a home owner.
When I first went into the council housing department to start my application, I can’t say I was happy with the way I was spoken to and the general attitude of the staff. However, not one to stay silent on this, I made it clear to the staff that I expected to be treated with civility. This was one of the main reasons I agreed to get involved with the stock transfer hoping that it was one way of changing attitudes to social housing tenants.
The vote was very close but the transfer was to go ahead and Merthyr Valleys Homes (MVH) came into being in March 2009. I became one of four tenant board members alongside four council-appointed members and four independent. It’s well documented that we had our problems early on but we learned a hard lesson on how to be an effective board.
With a newly appointed executive team, the board was able to go ahead and fulfil the promises made to tenants in the transfer document.
So where did we go from here? Mutuality seemed to be the way forward. Even though there were a number of mutual housing associations in Wales, these were tenant-only. In my previous life as a nurse manager I always insisted that my staff were as, if not more, important than our patients. If my staff were happy, well-treated and given a say in the running of their wards then the patients would get the care they deserved. So it was obvious to me that if the employees of MVH were given the same opportunity then tenants would get the service we deserved.
We were lucky that our chief executive was forward thinking and led us through a commission to look at becoming the first tenant-employee mutual housing association in Wales. It was interesting that during this commission we saw more tenants engaging with us and having their say at the commission meetings. Obviously it was easier to get the message over to employees and we saw much enthusiasm from them.
Following an EGM in May 2016 we became this mutual organisation. I became the first tenant chair of the Democratic Body. This is made up of 11 tenants, eight employees and two representatives from the local authority. At the commission it was decided to have an equal number of tenants and staff but our funders insisted on more tenants!
This meant that we could now appoint a skill-based board to work alongside us.
Even though the board holds the legal responsibility for MVH, it is the Democratic Body who appoint them and hold them to account to carry out the strategy that we planned together.
My journey as a tenant, from that first visit to Merthyr Council to now, has been fascinating. Tenants and staff are working together as equals, respecting each other and wanting the same thing – to see MVH go from strength to strength.
I know that my tenant voice counts for something. Merthyr Valleys Homes has given me that.
Fran Bevan is a tenant representative on the Democratic Body of Merthyr Valleys Homes