Durham County Council has changed the Council Tax Reduction Scheme. From 1 April 2026, all working‑age residents will need to contribute towards their Council Tax.

We want to make sure you have the right advice and support. If you’re unsure how these changes might affect you, or what to do next, please contact Durham County Council on 03000 262 0000.

Getting Involved

We have many opportunities for you to get involved and engaged in influencing and improving our services. You can read more about these below.

We need your help

If you have some time to spare and would like to be involved in the development of our services, we would love to hear from you.

We have lots of ways for you to influence and improve our services, from taking five minutes to complete a survey, telling us what you think of our policies, spending time having a discussion with other tenants or by scrutinising our services as part of our InsightXchange. We believe in the importance of having a diverse tenant scrutiny group, representing tenants from all backgrounds, experiences, and abilities.

Whether you would prefer to participate in person or digitally, we are committed to making sure your voice is heard in any way that works for you. You can take part in person, over the phone, in a video call or by email or text if you wish. We can even help with transport if needed. Let us know if you have any support needs and we will always try to adapt to meet these. Tell us you want to get involved by completing our form below.

Tell us you want to get involved

If you're short on time or may struggle to come to meetings on a regular basis, but would still like to share your views and experiences, you can still be involved by:

Taking part in surveys or questionnaires
Provide feedback on a new service or policy
Be invited to take part in one of our focus group discussions (group sessions that explore tenant experiences, opinions and views across various topics)

Our network of involved tenants could be a great option for you to share your feedback and experiences.

Get involved

Our InsightXchange group

Perfect for you if have time to join us once or twice a month, in person or online. You will support us in some of our largest projects and key decisions.

This is a growing group which includes volunteer tenants and is chaired by one of our Board members. The group carries out formal reviews and scrutiny of our services. They meet with us regularly and look at our performance, service levels and complaints data and help us to decide how we can improve. You can see the changes this group has driven for all residents in our Annual Report to Tenants.

We have finalised our scrutiny review of our handling of damp and mould cases and our cost of living approach.

We are currently recruiting to join our InsightXchange group; We can provide training to develop your knowledge and skills to give you the confidence to help us to create improved services together. Let us know if you have any support needs and we will always try to adapt to meet your needs. If you would like to find out more about applying to join this group, please complete our form and we will be in touch.

Get involved

Current opportunities to get involved

As with any of our services, it is important that we collect your thoughts about what we can do to improve services. We regularly send out satisfaction surveys to gather your views, but we also set up focus group meetings. Our next reviews are set out below. If you are interested in taking part, please click the link below to register your interest.

Join our tenant network

Register your details to be invited to attend focus group discussions or survey opportunities shared by our Customer Experience Team.

We listened, we acted

We asked tenants that had been involved in our Customer Voice Programme if they were satisfied that we had listened to their views and acted upon them. 90% tenants told us that we did. In the Tenant Satisfaction survey, carried out by an independent company, we asked tenants that had not necessarily been involved through formal engagement activities the same question. 83% of tenants answering the question told us that they thought we did.

You can find examples of service improvements we have made based on your voice, using the link below.

Ways we listened to and acted on your voice

Tpas

We are now members of TPAS, England’s leading tenant engagement experts. They are dedicated to improving tenant engagement standards across the country. They do this by bringing tenants, landlords and contractors together through independent and impartial advice, support, consultancy and training.

A membership with TPAS will give you a voice and means you will be provided with ongoing support and guidance on how to get involved or to lead activity in your community.

About Tpas

How do I apply for a Livin home or bungalow?

We advertise all of our available homes on our Find A Home page, simply visit this page for more information.

Before you can place a bid on one of our homes, you must first have an active account with the relevant Choice Based Lettings Scheme. Almost all our homes are located in County Durham and therefore are allocated through the Durham Key Options scheme. Durham Key Options (DKO) is a partnership between Durham County Council and landlords across County Durham.

We have a small number of homes which are located outside Durham, these are all advertised through Tees Valley HomeFinder, Hartlepool HomeSearch and Darlington HomeSearch; They are similar to Durham Key Options but we do not process applications registered for these schemes. If you wish to register an application for homes advertised in this area, please apply directly.

Once your application is approved, you will then be able to bid on homes that meet your needs. You can access the application form directly by visiting the relevant Choice Based Lettings system.

How long will it take for my application to be processed?

We aim to start processing your application within 10 working days. If we require any further information after this point, we will contact you to ask for this. Once we have received all the required information we will notify you of our decision within 20 days, and if accepted we will activate your account. You can also check your application status online by logging into the DKO portal.

How can I get involved with Livin and help to shape services?

To find out more about the different ways you can get involved, please visit our getting involved section.

Can I apply to buy my home under Right to Buy?

Tenants who have been with Livin since before the transfer from Sedgefield Council in 2009 may have the “Preserved Right to Buy” their property. Full details of the scheme are available on the Government Right to Buy website. If you are thinking of applying, please contact us.

Can I apply to buy my home under Right to Acquire?

If you have been a tenant for 3 or more years you may have the right to buy your property under the Right to Acquire scheme. Full details of the scheme are available on the Government Right to Acquire website. If you are thinking of applying, please contact us.