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Our strategies and plans

The Resident Engagement and Communication Strategy sets out how the Council will strengthen its relationship with tenants and leaseholders by improving the ways we listen, communicate, and involve residents in shaping housing services. It provides a clear framework for making engagement more accessible and inclusive, ensuring that residents have meaningful opportunities to share their views and influence decisions that affect their homes and communities.

The strategy also supports the Council’s responsibilities under the Social Housing Regulation Act, which places a stronger emphasis on listening to residents, responding to feedback, and demonstrating transparency and accountability. It aligns with the strengthened consumer standards and the new system of proactive regulation, where the Regulator of Social Housing expects landlords to show how they engage with tenants, learn from complaints, and use resident insight to drive service improvement.

Together, these commitments ensure that tenants’ and leaseholders’ experiences sit at the heart of how we design, review, and improve our services, and that the Council meets the higher expectations now placed on all social housing providers

Resident Engagement & Communication Strategy 2025-2030

The Housing, Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Strategy sets the context for this strategy and provides detail on why the delivery of affordable housing remains a key priority for Stroud District Council. There is currently an assessed need for 365 new affordable homes every year in the district. The local housing market is becoming increasingly polarised between those who were able to buy properties at a time of better wage to house price ratios, and those households who are struggling to access suitable properties.  This has been impacted further by the significant increase in private rents and smaller landlords selling properties due to increasing interest rates and rising household costs as a result of inflation.

The Council works with a wide range of Registered Providers (housing associations) as well as rural and community housing groups to maximise the delivery of much needed new affordable homes. This strategy sets out how the Council will contribute towards meeting this need by continuing the delivery of its own house building programme, which to date has delivered 276 new homes.

Tenancy Strategy The Localism Act 2011 gives Registered Providers of affordable housing the ability to offer more flexible/fixed term tenancies than the secure/assured lifetime tenancies that have previously been offered. The Act also allows Registered Providers to build new homes and re-let existing homes at a higher rent than is presently charged for social rented accommodation, under a new ‘affordable rent' tenure.

Our Tenancy Strategy sets out how we would like Registered Providers of affordable housing to respond to these changes which are likely to affect new tenants. Affordable Housing providers operating in the Stroud District are expected to have regard to the principles outlined in the Tenancy Strategy when reviewing or developing Tenancy Policies that detail how they propose to develop and manage their housing stock in response to the changes introduced in the Localism Act 2011.

The Tenancy Strategy also outlines our position around the new powers for Local Authorities to use accommodation in the private rented sector to discharge homelessness duty, and to set their own rules around housing allocations and determining who should quality to join the housing register for affordable housing.

Improving people’s lives is a core theme within the Council Plan. This aspiration is mirrored in our Independent Living Strategy which was reviewed and updated in November 2023.  Stroud District Council is committed to delivering its vision of “Providing good quality older people’s housing which meets a variety of current and future needs, where people want to live”. Our Independent Living HUBS provide vibrant, inclusive environments serving the local community as well as our tenants.

Independent Living Strategy 2023-2027

The Housing, Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Strategy sets out the Council’s plans to deliver housing and housing-related services across all tenures in the Stroud District.

In recent years, our district, like many others, has faced significant challenges related to housing affordability, availability, and quality. This overarching Housing and Homelessness Strategy outlines the key objectives, policies, and actions to be implemented over the next five years to address those issues.

It also looks back at the key achievements and lessons learned during the implementation of the previous strategy. For the first time, we have brought together the Housing Strategy, Homelessness Strategy and Rough Sleeper Strategy.

Previously these documents were separately produced but it was decided to combine them as there are strong links throughout; homelessness and rough sleeping are often symptoms of wider housing market failure.

This strategy sets out how we will work with tenants and partner agencies to create clean, safe and supportive neighbourhoods. It supports the Council Plan by improving the quality of our homes, empowering communities and enhancing local wellbeing.

Our work focuses on three areas: maintaining shared spaces, strengthening local cooperation, and tackling anti‑social behaviour (ASB), hate incidents and domestic abuse. We aim to keep neighbourhoods well maintained, encourage resident involvement, and ensure people feel safe and confident to report problems.

We will support tenant‑led activities, provide access to wellbeing and financial advice, and work closely with partners to prevent and address ASB. Progress will be monitored through Tenant Satisfaction Measures and reviewed every four years.

This strategy sets out how we will manage income within the Housing Revenue Account to ensure we can continue delivering high‑quality, value‑for‑money housing services. It outlines our approach to collecting rent, service charges and other income while supporting tenants—particularly those who may be vulnerable or facing financial challenges.

Our focus is on early intervention, financial inclusion and strong partnership working. We aim to help tenants manage their money, prevent debt, and reduce arrears, while taking fair and proportionate action to recover money owed to the service. The strategy also responds to national changes including welfare reform, the Social Housing (Regulation) Act 2023 and upcoming rent policy updates.

We make four key commitments: empowering tenants to prevent debt, recovering income owed, working with partners to enhance services, and proactively managing income to meet current and future housing needs. Progress will be monitored through performance measures, tenant feedback and regular review every four years.