29 September 2000
Of those wishing to move, 58% cited aspects of their home as the reason while nearly half specified neighbourhood problems.
The Mori survey of 10,000 tenants will be published in full next month. Revealing some initial findings at the NHF conference, Baroness Dean, the corporation's chair, pointed out that the survey also contained a number of positive messages for registered social landlords (RSLs).
Seventy-nine per cent of tenants were satisfied with their landlord while 65% thought their property represented value for money.
Asked where they hoped to be living in ten years, 54% said they would still be renting while only 32% said they hoped to buy a house.
'Tenants are in the main satisfied with their homes and services but that does not mean they want to stay put,' she said.'Our problem, I believe, is that a housing association home is now seen by too many as a place of last resort. That's an image we have to change.'
The findings will be used by RSLs as a further argument for spending rent income on sustaining local neighbourhoods.
Speaking later to journalists, Baroness Dean said: 'There has to be added value in the community to keep people there.'
But she was cautious about lending the corporation's support to the RSLs' struggle over rent reform before the results of a study of 40 housing associations, ordered by the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions, are known.
PFsep2000
