Letter to the Editor – Tenant participation or lack of?

Your Say / Tue 13th Jan 2026 at 03:23pm

Dear Editor

AS a tenant of Harlow council for many decades I would like to address the attitude of the council to consulting tenants’ on serious issues that directly affect them.

For example, what is the attitude of the council towards tenant participation at all levels of the council structure? Does it support the notion that all tenants’ should be consulted on issues that affect them?

If so, it should not be in a small room with maybe four participants highlighting their concerns but in council meetings where all councillors’ are present with a tenant or tenants controlling the room and the agenda. I did that many years ago and it worked well.

In addition, having received many requests to complete piecemeal local council tenant satisfaction surveys, I decided to make suggestions on the way forward for tenant participation in the town. They were:

The restoration of monthly or quarterly local neighbourhood council meetings;
Tenants or leaseholders should write an article about services in the Harlow Times,
A tenant should chair the council’s housing committee. I did it back when the TAG movement had a say in tenants’ views. It went well!

Finally, with local devolution about to be introduced surely the views of the 9,000 tenanted council homes in Harlow would be a positive, serious and valued contribution to the debate. Wouldn’t it?

Gary Roberts

2 Comments for Letter to the Editor – Tenant participation or lack of?:

Nicholas Taylor

2026-01-14 10:35:36

Gary is right about the lack of tenant consultation, but it does not of course stop there. The Councils consultation with residents across the town is lamentable to say the least. At best it is a tick box the council can say it carries out, at it's worse it is non existent. Just a few examples, the Local Plan in 2019, the allotment site at Bushy Croft, the warehouses close to Bynghams, Sherards House demolitition and most recently the demolition and sale of garage sites. Back in the 1990's and early 2000's Harlow Council was at the leading edge of resident consultation within local government. Since then, the closure of offices, the ending of Area Committees and lack of face to face contact has led to the erosion of the link between the council and residents. There is worse to come of course when Harlow Council disappears in 18 months time, we will be the only town in Essex without a Town or Parish Councils from which residents can voice an opinion.