Inside Housing – Insight – Kwajo Tweneboa interview: ‘Poor conditions have been brushed under the carpet for so long’

Mr Tweneboa then posted a thread of this evidence on Twitter. This caught ITV’s attention. “ITV came down to film for two weeks. I was going around organising and running, finding the tenants for them to speak to and talking to them,” he recalls. Under pressure from ITV’s investigation into disrepair, Clarion apologised and carried out repairs on the Eastfields Estate.

Tables slightly turned

The awful situation was piling on top of Mr Tweneboa. He recalls: “I couldn’t be more depressed. I said, ‘I need to shake this housing association, right from top to bottom.’ They didn’t know who I was, then the ITV piece came out and everyone from the bottom right up until the CEO knew my name,” he recalls. “We were telling them what to do, instead of them telling us what they’re not going to do.”

Mr Tweneboa’s flat had now been properly repaired, but social tenants across the UK carried on getting in touch. “It showed me that there’s a lot more work I can do in terms of other social housing tenants,” he says.

Mr Tweneboa is studying business, entrepreneurship and innovation at the University of Leicester. The day before we speak, he spent six hours travelling to and from his classes. “I was there in lectures and seminars, sending emails to MPs, sending emails on behalf of tenants, making calls – I made a call for a resident whose heating has been off for three months,” he says.

“Cathy Come Home, that generation of young people who set up housing associations on the basis of what they saw – I think what he’s doing is exactly the same vibe”

While other students might be partying, Mr Tweneboa’s experiences drive him to do something different. He has seen the impact he can have, and he wants to do more. The results he is getting are undeniable. “I think [social landlords] understand that if I’m writing to them on behalf of the tenant, if they’re not going to do the work, then I will happily escalate.”

What would real change look like? Should landlords have tenants on boards? Mr Tweneboa practically jumps out of his seat. “Oh my gosh, yes, I’ve been screaming this,” he says. “These housing associations 1,000,000% need to have people that have experienced, or are in, social housing.” It is the only way they can get a “true and proper insight into what’s going on”, he states.

Alison Inman, former president of the Chartered Institute of Housing, points out that the conditions Mr Tweneboa has uncovered are essentially the same as the Rachman private landlords of the 20th century. “Cathy Come Home, that generation of young people who set up housing associations on the basis of what they saw – I think what he’s doing is exactly the same vibe,” Ms Inman says, adding: “More power to his elbow.” On board members, she says: “Every board member needs to be saying, ‘Take me to your worst properties. Who’s living in them and what are you going to do about it?’”

Mr Tweneboa is turning the spotlight on landlords. “It’s been brushed under the carpet for so long. And I said to myself, ‘I’m going to be the person that pulls that carpet from under the feet of these associations and councils,’” he says. “I remember a workman coming into the house… and saying, ‘not even animals should be living like this’. And in all the homes I’ve been into, I thought the exact same ever since. Even animals in this country are treated better than social housing tenants.”

“I’m willing to take on absolutely anyone because even [housing secretary] Michael Gove couldn’t sit in front of me and just justify the way people are living.”