Housing Summits – Staffordshire, Stratford-on-Avon and Heywood and Middleton

It has been a packed few months as End Furniture Poverty have worked with a number of MPs in Staffordshire, Stratford and Heywood and Middleton to organise a series of housing summits to bring together social landlords and other local actors.

The purpose of these summits is to allow EFP, and the MP involved, to discuss furniture poverty and other issues that are most important to social landlords within their area. This has allowed EFP to engage with several large social landlords from across the country with many showing interest and willing to offer furnished tenancies to their tenants. We will continue to work with them closely over the coming months to ensure this is implemented.

In addition to these summits EFP have begun work on convening a Greater Manchester social landlord group that comprises over a dozen landlords and will allow all to collectively discuss furniture poverty and its potential solutions.

We are also delighted that a representative from the Good Landlord Charter has agreed to come along, as a well as another from Citizen’s Advice Manchester – who will be able to give their perspective as a frontline organisation.

We hope that this meeting, which came about as a result of a working partnership between EFP and the Greater Manchester Housing Partnership, will generate more positive action amongst social providers in the GM area to end furniture poverty.