A hard-to-reach audience: getting tenants involved in rent decisions
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The challenge
The City of Edinburgh Council's Housing and Regulatory Services department wanted to consult its tenants. This had proven to be a hard-to-reach audience in recent years, so the council wanted to try a new approach.
For several years, the Housing and Regulatory Services Department had been keen to engage with residents to find out how they would like to see rent money spent on improving homes and services. However, attempts at consultation struggled, as engaging with the target demographic proved challenging.
Previously, the department had invited tenants to meetings to give their feedback, promoted through word of mouth and other traditional communication channels. But trust from the residents was low and responses limited. Consequently, Edinburgh wanted to try an interactive online tool to see if an alternative approach could help them connect with residents.
The approach
Simulator gives people the opportunity to set their own priorities for public resources, balancing different service areas against an overall target.
The City of Edinburgh Council used a specially-tailored Tenant Priorities Simulator to reflect the choices at hand. Participants were asked to prioritise their preferences for different investment options. The council also tried a new kind of question from previous exercises. Tenants were asked to prioritise investment in homes and services that could save them money. The choice, then, was which plans to implement and, by extension, which groups of tenants to benefit and by how much.
This Tenant Priorities Simulator provided an online channel for the department to ask people for their input, allowing them to explore a new and different response mechanism. This was a deliberately experimental approach for the council and the department were very happy with the process.
The results
Because it was based on an existing product, procurement was straightforward. The speed with which we were able to complete the customisation of the Simulator exceeded their expectations. The quick turnaround allowed the department to test with tenants ahead of the official live date, giving them valuable input from participants about the approach.
The Housing and Regulatory Services department were pleased with the response rate generated by the Simulator – it was three times higher than other exercises in previous years. This was especially positive given that they had identified the biggest challenge as finding an appropriate way to engage tenants which would encourage them to give their feedback.
What impressed me most was how quickly the product was turned around. As a result, I was able to engage with my target audience ahead of the live date and to ensure it was user-friendly, to encourage the maximum response rate.
Delib is a govtech leader specialising in consultation and engagement, trusted by over 600 government organisations worldwide, including major planning projects. Since 2004, we've been building secure, accessible digital platforms to make participation simpler, fairer, and more inclusive. Our flagship product, Citizen Space, was built in collaboration with the UK government and has supported more than 11 million responses across over 110,000 democratic activities.