Housing tenants benefit from autumn funding windfall for outdoor communal projects

Housing tenants have successfully bid for funding to help spruce up communal areas where they live.

Wiltshire Council encouraged tenants to come up with fresh ideas to put their own personal touch on shared outside areas.

20 groups successfully bid for more than £100k from the existing environmental improvements budget for a range of schemes including new play equipment, benches and parking.

Cllr Richard Clewer, Wiltshire Council Cabinet Member for Housing chaired the Housing Board which judged the bids.

Tenants joined officers and the Housing Board at the City Hall in Salisbury with a chance to pitch their bids.

Cllr Clewer said: "This was an ideal opportunity for tenants to join together and consider what matters the most to them in their communal outdoor areas.

"We heard so many great ideas from community groups and residents' associations. Chairing the board gave me the opportunity to find out in greater detail from the tenants themselves about the improvements they hoped to make and how they would help galvanise local communities and add a sense of greater community pride.

"We could see all the bids would add special value for the residents so we decided to award funding to them all. I look forward to seeing these projects come together in the future."

This was the first time housing services asked tenants to come together and consider what matters the most to them in their communal outdoor areas. 

The small improvement bid requests ranged from the provision of planters and benches for garden clubs, to installing new play equipment and creating more parking.

One tenant said "We are so grateful to have had this opportunity to improve where we live, it has made us feel important and involved and has brought our community closer together."

"We could see all the bids would add special value for the residents so we decided to award funding to them all. I look forward to seeing these projects come together in the future."