Headlines: June 18th, 2009

The 27,000 social housing tenants from across the country who took part in the first phase of the Tenant Service Authority’s National Conversation have listed getting repairs and maintenance right as their top priority.

The report of the National Conversation shows that other priorities are health and safety, 39 percent of tenants, security in their neighbourhood, 37 per cent, keeping tenants informed, 24 per cent and dealing with complaints, 23 per cent.

The report also shows that 76 per cent of tenants are satisfied with their landlords. Of this, 32 per are very satisfied, while 44 per cent are fairly satisfied. Some 13 per cent are not satisfied at all.

Tenants consider the issue of choice to be most important for repairs and maintenance and design of their home, with 77 and 46 per cent respectively.

Key priorities for the TSA and Government should be repairs and maintenance, reasonable and affordable rent, keeping homes up to date and in decent condition, dealing with anti-social behaviour, and enforcing standards.

TSA has now launched the second phase of the National Conversation, with a discussion paper on the draft standards that will apply to all social housing landlords in England from 2010. The standards focus on six key themes – the services offered to tenants which include repairs and maintenance and neighbourhood management, tenant empowerment and involvement, the tenancy agreement which covers rents and allocations, governance, viability and value for money.