All these tenant participation structures and methods are common in Britain today:

Tenants association An organic grass-roots form of collective action. Tenants associations are concerned with a wide range of community matters, including social issues. Tenants associations are often the basic building-block of participation strategies. Recognized groups - those with constitutions and annual elections - can elect representatives to decision-making bodies and be consulted by the landlord directly.

Tenants federation An umbrella body, the federation acts as an independent support structure for its member tenants associations. Federations provide policy and strategic thinking for local tenants movements and co-ordinate tenant participation with borough councils, regional RSLs or regional government.

Estate agreement or Local compact An agreement specifying the quality of service from housing (and other services) to households on an estate. They can be useful for targeting local problems but sometimes seem more like wish lists and seldom seem to be enforcable

Estate committee or area forum An informal structure, involving local housing managers and tenants associations. As more formal groups they can monitor the estate agreement and generally promote partnership between management and tenants. Sometimes as multi-agency groups - involving residents and professionals - they encourage joint working and shared targeting in regeneration areas. Estate committees can have delegated power over an estate management budget with tenants taking minor spending decisions.

Consultative committees or Tenant Panels Sounding boards for the council cabinet or for ALMOs, or Housing Associations' management board - they can be a forum for consulting on strategies and best value plans. Consultative committees or panels have no executive power and do not give tenants participation rights.

Tenants on the Management Board of a Registered Social Landlord or ALMO Tenant involvement in decision - making, through membership of a formal committee structure or management board. In previous years council tenants could make their influence felt by sitting on council housing committees, even when they were deprived of a vote. This was a common form of participation but since New Labour's modernisation of local government, few tenants now have this right. Tenants make up a third of the management boards of many Registered Social Landlords and all ALMOs. Many RSLs seem to believe that electing tenants onto the board, or issuing shares to tenants so that they can vote, provides participation. To work well, tenants on decision-making boards need to be accountable to their tenants associations and individual tenants. When they are directors of a Board they are accountable only to that Board.

Tenant management organisations Local tenant management organisations have a delegated budget and control over day to day management. Overall this is still partnership with the landlord (and gives tenants little control of planned maintenance or capital investment). But a borough - wide Tenant Management Organisation - Kensington & Chelsea is the only example - can take over all housing management services. Some Registered Social Landlords are run by tenants (like People First in Manchester), some of the most successful RSLs were set up by community activists (Banks of the Weir) - though some have lost contact with those roots. Tenant ownership co-operatives have a long tradition and saw a boom in the 1970s. In Liverpool, and elsewhere, tenant ownership co-operatives have successfully redesigned estates under total tenant control.

Consumer models of involvement (market research)

Focus groups set up by housing organisations to test ideas and give feedback on services. They are there to give customers' views and housing organisations don't promise to listen to those views or do anything about them.

Surveys market research carried out by housing organisations, either by home visit, mail, phone or text. Again there's no guarantee that tenants views will change anything

Mystery shopping where tenants pay unannounced visits to housing offices and test the response to a particular query or test a particular service. This is at its best when carried out in partnership with a housing organisation who are committed to improving services as a result of mystery shopping.

Tenant inspections trained tenants take on the role of the Audit Commission by interviewing staff and mystery shopping to give their view of a housing organisation. Often used by housing agencies in advance of the real inspection.