Ways to get involved
Whether you’ve got 10 minutes or a few hours, there’s a way for you to get involved in making your neighbourhood better. You don’t need any experience, just an interest in improving the housing service or helping your community.
Customer influence and assurance panel (CIAP)
The CIAP is our flagship resident panel, made up of dedicated tenants and leaseholders who care about their community. As a member, you'll be able to actively contribute to how housing services are run. You’ll help review services, dig into performance data, and influence key decisions that impact residents across the borough.
Anyone can apply and it’s a chance to work directly with senior managers and directors, making sure resident voices are heard at the top. We recruit new members every 2 years through a simple application and interview.
Customer link group
The Customer Link Group is about being the voice of your community. As a member, you’ll chat with neighbours, listen to what matters most to people in your area, and bring those insights back to the main resident panel (CIAP).
You'll use real-life experiences and local views to shape how services are delivered. Even if you're new to resident involvement, this is a good place to start connecting with others and make a difference where you live.
Estate walkabouts
Estate walkabouts help provide a direct influence on how your estate looks. Together, you'll identify issues including:
- fly-tipping
- broken lighting
- overgrown green spaces
- communal repairs
All estate residents are welcome to join any time. It’s a hands-on way to work together and see visible improvements in your neighbourhood. Dates for the estate walkabouts are published on your notice boards.
Local engagement
Involvement at a local level to help improve your neighbourhood by getting people talking about issues which are important to them. This can include:
- drop-in sessions
- pop-up days
- block meetings
- residents' associations
If you’ve got an idea for an event, we can help promote it or suggest a venue.
Mystery shopping
Being a mystery shopper helps us to improve our housing services anonymously. You’ll do tasks like calling the customer service line, sending an email, or visiting an office and then tell us how it went.
Your honest feedback helps us spot what’s working well and what needs to change. Full training is provided, and tasks are flexible to fit around your schedule.
Neighbourhood voice
Neighbourhood Voice helps us to improve maintainanence of your estate using your feedback. Each month, you'll carry out a quick inspection of your block and surrounding areas, rating the quality of our cleaning and grounds maintenance services.
Your feedback can be submitted online through our Photobook app, or by pre-paid post, whichever suits you best.
Performance monitoring group (PMG)
Members of the PMG team up with our staff to review how well key services are performing. You'll review how quickly repairs are done, how complaints are handled, and what satisfaction surveys are telling us. You’ll help spot patterns, raise questions, and suggest changes that can really make a difference for residents.
Readers' panel
Join our readers’ panel and help make sure our information and communication to residents is useful, clear, and easy to understand.
Service improvement meetings
Take part in focused working groups that look at a specific service or issue. These 'task and finish' groups bring together residents with recent or relevant experience to help design practical improvements.
Surveys
You can help us improve our services by providing feedback through a quick survey. This can be online or by text or phone.
Contact us
Contact us if you want to find out more about more about resident involvement, or if you have an idea for activities that will help your neighbourhood.
Email: residentinvolvement@croydon.gov.uk
Phone: 0208 726 6000 ext. 44524