From Flooring to Household Resilience

Impact Story

From Flooring to Household Resilience

How Transformation Cornwall helped reshape the conversation about tenancy sustainment across Cornwall

At a Glance

Project: Keep Cornwall Carpeted

Lead Organisation: Transformation Cornwall

Delivery Period: November 2025 – June 2026

Commissioned by: Trussell Trust Cornwall Foodbank Network

Partners: Cornwall Foodbanks, Housing Associations, Citizens Advice, End Furniture Poverty, Cornwall MPs, Cornwall Council and wider VCSE partners.

Focus: Preventing poverty through improved tenancy sustainment, household resilience and collaborative partnership working.

The Challenge

The Keep Cornwall Carpeted project began after Cornwall foodbanks identified a recurring issue affecting households moving into social housing. Many new tenants were receiving properties without floor coverings or other essential household items, creating additional financial pressure at the very point they were trying to establish a new home.

What initially appeared to be a practical issue quickly revealed something much bigger. Discussions with housing associations, Citizens Advice, foodbanks and other partners demonstrated that successful tenancy sustainment depends on much more than the condition of a property. Financial resilience, confidence, practical life skills, access to advice, community support and resident wellbeing all play an important role in helping people establish and sustain successful homes.

What Transformation Cornwall Did

Working on behalf of Cornwall's Trussell Trust foodbank network, Transformation Cornwall brought together organisations from across the housing, voluntary, advice and public sectors to understand the causes of tenancy hardship and identify opportunities for prevention.

The project included:

engaging all six Cornwall MPs;
working collaboratively with housing associations across Cornwall;
gathering evidence from foodbanks, Citizens Advice and housing providers;
developing practical policy proposals and briefing papers;
producing resources and partnership proposals;
facilitating discussions between local and national organisations; and
organising Cornwall's first MP-chaired Housing Association, Foodbank and VCSE Round Table, attended by more than 20 organisations.

Outputs

During the consultancy the project delivered:

A county-wide review of housing association approaches to flooring and tenancy-start support.
Strategic engagement with all six Cornwall MPs.
New relationships with housing association tenancy sustainment teams.
Development of practical proposals for improving tenancy resilience.
A county-wide Round Table bringing together more than 20 organisations from the housing, voluntary, advice and public sectors.
Agreement to strengthen partnership working and improve evidence sharing.
Identification of opportunities for collaborative pilot projects and external funding.

Outcomes and Impact

The project achieved far more than originally envisaged.

Rather than focusing solely on flooring provision, it helped reframe the conversation around Household Resilience and the wider factors that influence successful tenancy sustainment.

The project demonstrated that Cornwall already has many examples of excellent practice. Rather than creating new services, partners recognised the opportunity to connect existing expertise more effectively, strengthen collaboration and improve evidence of what works.

Key outcomes included:

Stronger relationships between housing providers, foodbanks and the voluntary sector.
Increased recognition of the importance of prevention and early intervention.
Agreement to explore improved data sharing and evidence gathering.
Greater emphasis on social value and measuring impact.
New opportunities for collaborative funding and pilot projects.
Cross-party political engagement supporting future partnership working.

One significant outcome of the Round Table was Jayne Kirkham MP's request for agreed messages to take directly into national discussions on poverty, housing, land supply and social housing, demonstrating how local partnership working can help inform wider policy discussions.

Transformation Cornwall's Contribution

Transformation Cornwall's role extended well beyond project delivery.

The organisation identified an emerging issue, gathered evidence from frontline organisations, developed practical proposals and brought together partners who would not normally work together around a shared agenda.

By acting as an independent facilitator, Transformation Cornwall created a trusted environment in which housing associations, foodbanks, Citizens Advice, MPs, national organisations and community partners could openly share learning, identify common challenges and begin developing collaborative solutions.

Rather than creating new services, the project focused on connecting existing expertise, strengthening partnership working and identifying opportunities to add value to work already taking place across Cornwall.

Skills and Experience Demonstrated

This project demonstrates Transformation Cornwall's ability to provide:

Strategic partnership development.
Programme and project design.
Research and evidence gathering.
Policy development and influencing.
Stakeholder engagement and facilitation.
Community engagement and lived experience.
Cross-sector collaboration.
Funding strategy and partnership development.
Social value and impact measurement.
Organisational development and systems thinking.

These are core capabilities that Transformation Cornwall now brings to a growing range of county-wide partnerships and collaborative programmes.

Lasting Legacy

The project has created a platform for future collaboration rather than ending with the completion of the original contract.

Building on the relationships established, Transformation Cornwall is now working with housing associations, community organisations and other partners to develop a Household Resilience Partnership that complements existing tenancy sustainment teams by bringing additional voluntary and community sector expertise around them.

Future work is exploring opportunities to strengthen:

tenancy resilience;
financial wellbeing;
food security;
practical household support;
community resilience;
digital inclusion;
evidence and impact measurement; and
collaborative funding for pilot projects.

This next phase reflects the project's evolution from addressing one practical issue to developing a broader, preventative approach to reducing hardship and strengthening communities across Cornwall.