How Brighton & Hove is enabling tenants to take control of their homes

There has been a lot of debate over the past month about the merits of tenant cashback , a new pilot scheme to offer tenants cash for themselves or their community in return for doing their own repairs. At Brighton & Hove City Council , this announcement sparked particular interest as we've been considering how we can move away from the traditional paternalistic landlord and tenant relationship towards an enabling relationship that empowers tenants and communities to manage more aspects of their homes themselves. Last week, staff and tenants started to use Brighton & Hove City Council's new Housing Centre, built with co-delivery in mind. We took an empty warehouse in an area surrounded by social housing and converted it into a bespoke space for housing staff, our repairs contractor Mears Ltd, and tenants to come together in a three-way delivery partnership. Not only the administrative hub of the housing service, the new centre includes a "tenant action zone", a kitchen assembly area, and space for white-goods recycling. And it's the base for our successful apprenticeship programme with Mears and a new training centre for tenants. The Housing Centre is symbolic of a wider change in the city, being led by the council, where co-production is at the heart of the design and delivery of services through intelligent commissioning. Central to this is a desire to involve our housing tenants more deeply in deciding how we invest in their homes, opening-up our data in creative ways to facilitate a discussion around how we might invest differently in the future. Also linked to this is participatory budgeting, with tenants choosing how money is spent in their community and then often getting involved in delivering the projects themselves. At our Neighbourhood Panels last month, several tenant groups voted for their Estate Development Budget to be spent on tools for their blossoming gardening projects. It might only be a short step for them to bid for tools and materials to improve their own homes, along with some training on DIY, basic repairs and health and safety. We're already aiming to offer tenants opportunities to learn new skills that can improve their homes and communities, whether it's fixing taps, decorating common ways, or financial literacy or basic numeracy. I welcome any initiative that gives tenants more choice and control over their homes – although I would treat the idea of tenant cashback with some caution. Training and quality control systems can be as expensive as sending a plumber to fix a tap, and it's important that such initiatives do not detract from other important housing priorities, such as the need to invest in improving and retrofitting as well as repairing homes. We should also remember that social housing tenants are often the most vulnerable households in our local community, who may lack the skills and resources to invest in their homes. In Brighton & Hove, our new Housing Centre aims to create the right conditions for us to become an enabling landlord. Although it's very early days, I think it's right the housing sector should be asking whether repairs budgets could be invested differently to empower local communities and achieve better outcomes. We will be watching the tenant cashback pilots with interest. Nick Hibberd is head of housing & social inclusion at Brighton & Hove City Council . Follow him on Twitter @nickhibberd1 This content is brought to you by Guardian Professional. Join the housing network for more like this direct to your inbox.