The role of a TRA
A Tenants & Residents Association (TRA) is a group of residents from an estate, block, or neighbourhood who volunteer to come together formally to work with Hammersmith & Fulham Council to:
- Come up with solutions to local issues or concerns.
- Be inclusive and promote community spirit and co-operation.
- Work in partnership with us to make decisions about the management and maintenance of their block or estate.
- Influence the housing services we are providing.
- Provide information to their community on the work they are doing.
H&F recognise that some associations refer to themselves as Residents Associations. In this guide, when we refer to Tenants & Residents Associations (TRAs), we also address Residents Associations.
TRAs play a vital role in giving residents a representative voice to help H&F to understand how well we are delivering our services. We are committed to working with TRAs to shape our strategies and policies to make sure that council housing residents are at the heart of what we do as a landlord.
TRAs are independent organisations with their own committee structures. They are not run or managed by Hammersmith & Fulham Council, but we do have a set of commonly agreed rules that we expect all TRAs to follow. As your housing service landlord, our direct relationship is with council housing tenants, leaseholders, freeholders and private renting tenants who live in a council managed property. In some cases, TRAs also choose to represent residents from housing associations and privately owned households. (See Committee roles on page 5).
Some of the benefits of being a part of a TRA include:
- Being kept informed about your community, housing services and wider council and agency services.
- Building a stronger sense of community by getting to know your neighbours, making joint decisions and organising community events.
- Building your knowledge and skills by taking part in relevant training and networking activities with other TRAs. Your community will become part of a likeminded community of groups who exist to make housing services better for everyone.
- Access to funding grants and officer support for projects to benefit your neighbourhood.
- Building transparency and giving you greater insight into decisions that may affect your community.
- Enables greater accountability, by encouraging you to hold both the residents and the council responsible for shaping a thriving community.
Can more than one TRA represent the same area, or parts of the same area?
It is up to each TRA to determine the area they represent. Ideally, only one TRA will represent a defined area, so it isn’t confusing for the residents they represent. However, there are situations where more than one TRA may represent the same area, or part of the same area. This is most likely to occur if a TRA represents street properties. We suggest that where areas of TRA representation overlap that they meet to discuss working arrangements and agree how they will move forward.