Invitation to Tender: Learning Partner – Impact on Urban Health and Justice for Tenants

Why we want to evaluate

Justice For Tenants is a non-profit organisation that has received over £450,000 of initial funding from the health charity Impact on Urban Health to support local authorities in effectively using Civil Financial Penalties.

We want to evaluate the impact of Justice for Tenants’ local authority support offer, putting together a compelling business case demonstrating its value for money and showing how effective enforcement stacks up for councils financially.We also want to learn more about how improved enforcement of housing regulation can improve tenant’s health, in the short and longer term.

Justice For Tenants has provided training on new enforcement powers conferred by the Housing and Planning Act 2016 to government and council staff across the country. Justice For Tenants provides examples of best practice and templates to enable these new powers to be used to protect tenants.

Local authorities that use Justice For Tenants’ services have policies, processes and procedures that support officers to enforce housing law in the private rented sector, allowing for effective and efficient action via Civil Financial Penalties. Revenue from these penalties are ring-fenced, only being used to carry out further enforcement work to improve the private rented sector.

Local authorities who effectively use Civil Financial Penalty have larger teams and are able to do more proactive and supportive work – identifying substandard properties with vulnerable tenants that other local authorities without the same resources are unlikely to uncover. Furthermore, local authorities that generate revenue from enforcing against criminal landlords and agents are better resourced to spend money on data to support proactive work and to assist vulnerable tenants facing unlawful eviction and harassment.

As of 20 August 2024, 39 local authorities in England are using Justice for Tenants to help with their Civil Financial Penalties. This number is expected to climb for 160 by the end of 2025 – 50% of all local authorities in the country.

It is hoped that in due course this approach will extend to using excess resource to tackle some underlying issues faced by this vulnerable tenant population, with revenue from Civil Financial Penalties being used to support tenants via methods such as assistance with accessing benefits they are entitled to or registering with a local GP.

The recent change of government is likely to strengthen private rented sector legislation via the Renters Rights Bill, which will impose statutory duties on every local authority to carry out a massive number of Civil Financial Penalties for a range of new breaches and offences.

What we want to evaluate

We are looking for a partner to evaluate the impact of Justice for Tenants’ offer, answering the following questions:

• What is the impact of Justice for Tenants’ offer on Local Authority costs and savings? (Economic evaluation)
• What can we understand about the potential impact of improved enforcement on residents’ health and wellbeing?
• How can JFT offer help prepare Local Authorities for the Renters Rights Act?
• What else will local authorities need support within the future beyond this service?

Expected tasks and deliverables from the evaluation partnership

We are looking for a partner able to answer our research questions and produce a series of compelling evaluation outputs which combine insights from JFT as well as other key stakeholders and speak directly to Local Authorities. Key activities will include:

• Regular meetings with Justice for Tenants and Impact on Urban Health teams.
• Co-development of a project plan with Justice for Tenants and Impact on Urban Health.
• Development of a project timeline.
• Qualitative research with members of Local Authority teams and key stakeholders such as thought leaders in the PRS.
• Quantitative analysis of cost-benefit data held by Justice for Tenants.
• Development of an Interim report with analysis data gathered so far.
• Development of a final report with final data analysis.
• Dissemination and communication activities with key audiences in partnership with Justice for Tenants and IoUH.

Expected participants and audiences for evaluation learning

The following stakeholder groups can be considered both participants and key audiences for the evaluation:

• Justice for Tenants – The learning partner will work closely with Justice for Tenants. They are a key audience as the evaluation outputs will be used for their business development.
• Impact on Urban Health  – Impact on Urban Health will be providing support to the evaluation project. They will help to disseminate and amplify the learning from the project.
• Thought-leaders on the private rented sector – Leading academics and thinkers should be included in the qualitative research. They are also a key audience for the outputs.
• Local authorities – There is an opportunity to include the experiences of team leaders and managers relating to the difficulties that Civil Financial Penalties bring, and how working with JFT has changed the landscape. Local authorities not already in receipt of JFT support will be a key audience.
• Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government – There is an opportunity to include the perspectives of those working on enforcement and Civil Financial Penalties within the central government, and their perspective on JFTs input. Central government will also be a key audience for the evaluation outputs.

Who we want to partner with

We are looking for applicants able to demonstrate the following knowledge and skills:

• Expertise in economic evaluations including cost benefit analysis.
• Expertise in qualitative research methods including semi structured interviews and focus groups.
• Expertise in mixed methods research and ability to build a compelling narrative from quantitative and qualitative data.
• Previous experience working with or influencing Local Authorities and knowledge of current Local Authority context and priorities.
• Expert skills in communication and storytelling to help us effectively disseminate the learning to local authorities and other audience groups.
• Expertise in communicating findings in an accessible and usable way to help facilitate learning and improvement.
• Understands and shares the principles of this project – wanting to raise the profile of the effect of poor housing on health and understanding the structural factors that feed into this.

Budget and time

The total budget for this learning contract is £50,000, including expenses and VAT. The duration of the learning partnership is 18 months (January 2025-June 2026).