Southwark’s Tenants’ Council has joined a boycott of the council’s review into how it communicates with its tenants and residents, despite being invited to join the panel.
As the News reported last week, the Southwark Groups of Tenant Organisations has said it wants to ‘bury’ a new panel tasked with reviewing the way the council shares information with people living in council homes and on its estates.
The council says the way it shares information has not significantly changed in decades. It is expected that much of the review will focus on social media and online communication.
The review caused controversy after it emerged that the panel chair would receive more than £12,000 for 28-days’ work.
Now the Tenants’ Council have shared a statement with the paper, saying it is ‘not opposed to change’, but confirming it had ‘voted unanimously’ to decline the council’s invitation to join the review panel as ‘we concluded that our involvement would be cosmetic rather than constructive’.
The News understands several TRAs have all signed motions at recent meetings supporting the boycott, with Kingslake TRA one of the latest to sign up.
A public meeting on the issue with speakers including Sian Berry is taking place tonight, in Walworth, here.