We are asking
The new Draft Housing Decant Policy sets out the Council’s approach when a decant occurs and the processes that are involved.
A ‘decant’ is when residents must temporarily move from their permanent homes to alternative accommodation. This can be due to emergencies like fires, necessary repairs, or to enable redevelopment.
This process can be complicated, so an ‘easy to read’ document has been produced for tenants to go alongside the policy.
It is important that the key points of the decant process are communicated effectively and are easy to understand.
Have your say on the Housing Decant Policy documents by completing the survey until 4 April 2025
What can you Influence?
The look, layout and explanation included in the Housing Decant Policy document.
What can't you Influence?
The Housing Decant Policy processes and procedures.
You said
We reached out to all our tenants who have been through a decant process, inviting them to a workshop to share their experience and look at our ‘easy to read’, so we can improve the service for tenants in the future.
Tenants had the opportunity to speak to the Property Improvement Team Leader and ask any further questions they may have about the service.
In the workshop tenants said:
- There is a lot of paperwork and calls to make during the process, a section on the website with a checklist and extra information would be helpful.
- Some people will feel nervous about being decanted. Maybe share some positive case studies online.
- From personal decant experience, communication could be improved with updates, reminders, and notifications sent throughout the whole process.
- The easy-read is clear to understand but perhaps add some more icons.
We did
As a result of the feedback from the workshop, we made the below changes:
- Icons have been added to the ‘easy read’ to break up the text.
- Officers are looking into positive stories to publish online as case studies.
- A checklist of tasks has been created for the end of the ‘easy read’.