By Neil Merrick
12th June 2009
Most tenants in social housing are satisfied with their landlord, according to a study published on June 9. But they do want the sector’s new regulator to ensure that rents are affordable and their homes are kept in good condition.
The survey by the regulator, the Tenant Services Authority, covered more than 26,000 tenants. It found that 77% were generally happy with their local authority or housing association while just 12% were dissatisfied.
More than half of tenants said their landlords provided good customer service and carried out repairs and maintenance effectively, but only a third were happy with community facilities and neighbourhood security.
Two-thirds lived in homes managed by housing associations, while the remainder rented from councils or other social landlords. Levels of satisfaction were similar for all types of landlord, but generally higher among white tenants (78%) than people from black and minority ethnic groups (69%).
Asked what they thought the TSA’s priorities should be, 69% of tenants said ensuring rents and service charges were affordable, 56% said keeping homes in a decent condition and 25% said the authority should ensure tenants were given more say over management decisions.
TSA chief executive Peter Marsh said the findings were ‘a good starting point’, but landlords must explore ways of providing tenants with greater choice.
The study – dubbed a ‘national conversation’ by the TSA – found that tenants wanted more choice over the timing of repairs and maintenance work and the design of homes.
The TSA has been regulating housing associations since December, when it took over from the Housing Corporation. A new regulatory system, including councils and other providers of affordable housing, is due to be introduced next April.
An online survey of 467 landlords, which coincided with the tenants’ study, found that 58% supported a single set of standards for all providers. Local authorities were more likely to support unified standards than housing associations.
A discussion paper on draft standards, also published this week, suggests the new framework will be based on co-regulation, with landlords partly regulating themselves under the scrutiny of tenants.
The TSA will monitor six main areas, including customer service, governance and value for money, and will look into the possibility of local standards. ‘We want to retract from top-down regulatory diktat,’ said Marsh.
