09 January 2004
Council tenants are becoming increasingly dissatisfied with the service they receive from their landlord.
New government figures show that 23% of tenants are slightly or very dissatisfied with their local authority, compared with 19% two years earlier and 14% in 1994/95.
The figures, contained in the latest study of housing in England by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, reveal housing association tenants are most likely to praise their landlord.
More than three-quarters (76%) of tenants with registered social landlords were fairly or very satisfied in 2001/02 (the year the survey was carried out), compared with 75% of private tenants and 64% of council tenants.
But Housing In England 2001/02, published by the ODPM on December 30, also shows that RSLs have no cause to be complacent. In 1997/98, 85% of RSL tenants were fairly or very satisfied.
Almost a third (31%) of council tenants thought their landlord took no account of their views, while just 58% were satisfied with the way local authorities carry out repairs. Among RSL tenants, 71% were satisfied with repair services.
By 2001/02, there were 2.8 million council tenants – down from 3.9 million ten years earlier. This is mainly due to the right to buy scheme and transfers to RSLs. The number of housing association properties doubled from 600,000 to 1.2 million during the same period.
More than a quarter (27%) of tenants who had transferred from a local authority to a RSL believed that services had improved while 16% claimed they had worsened.
PFjan2004
