What tenants want

What tenants want is set to become the Next Big Thing. The government is creating a new body to represent their views: the National Tenant Voice. And the new watchdog tasked with keeping tabs on housing associations and, eventually, council landlords has had the word ‘tenant’ squeezed into its name: the Tenant Services Authority.

So what are the issues that most concern tenants? Troublesome neighbours came top of the list in our survey of 66 tenants’ and residents’ organisations, which collectively represent 270,000 households in England. Thirty-five per cent of them say anti-social behaviour is the biggest problem where they live. And more than a fifth name lack of housing for their children as the major worry. In third place comes poor state of repairs.

Jimmy Devlin, chair of Green Banks Tenants’ and Residents’ Association is one of those who says anti-social behaviour is his main gripe. His residents’ association has just helped set up a neighbourhood watch on the St Helen’s estate where he shares his home with another social housing tenant.

‘Nothing is improving because we can’t regenerate properly. Physical improvement is excellent. New bathrooms and kitchens: superb. But you can’t have decent neighbourhoods if people moving into the housing are not improved,’ he says.

Bill Tutt, chair of the Sportsbank, Engleheart and Shorndean Tenants’ and Residents’ Association in Lewisham, south London, agrees that efforts to tackle anti-social behaviour are of prime concern.

The arrival of leaseholders and homeowners through right to buy and other homeownership programmes has injected extra tensions in to estates, Mr Tutt says.

‘You find that when people own their home, some of them completely change. They think you are only renting and [think] “I have got my own place” as if they are better .’

The government’s ASB policy drive gave neighbourhood irritations a name and made residents more insistent on efforts to tackle it, he adds: ‘Since they have called it anti-social behaviour, the community is more demanding than it was before.’

But Mr Tutt says that despite the problems, the 40 years he has spent in social housing have been happy ones. ‘I think I am lucky,’ he concludes.

His positive view of life as a social renter is shared by the majority of tenants’ organisations that responded to our survey. Three-quarters say they feel proud to be renting from social landlords, with just 18 per cent indicating it’s not something they would trumpet to their friends.

‘A lot of people are proud to live locally, but not necessarily proud to live in social housing. Most social renters would prefer to live elsewhere but can’t afford to move,’ one residents’ association member says.

‘In my neighbourhood people want to have pride in their property which is why… most of the residents make an effort to make their properties look appealing both internally and externally and also some take pride in their communal areas,’ another states.

One tenants’ association was even more positive: ‘People now aspire to social housing.’

Other responses to our poll show that tenants’ concerns stretch beyond traditional housing policy lines. One tenants’ association calls for the sector to be rebranded: ‘Stop using the name social housing as there is a stigma attached to this.’

Another frets about the replacement of traditional lettings regimes with choice-based lettings. ‘[Residents] are concerned that the choice-based lettings system doesn’t work towards building a community. In many cases, children of established families living on the… estate have had to move away from the area into private rented accommodation, before they can reapply back into the area. When they reapply they are normally homeless, as they could not afford the higher rent in private accommodation.’

Build bias

Tenants were very clear about what the government should be focusing on – a finding which should make interesting reading for the future representatives on the National Tenant Voice. A significant proportion – 40 per cent – say building more homes should be top of ministers’ priorities lists. A quarter of those questioned say they want more cash spent on refurbishing homes and estates – and this two years before most landlords are expected to complete their decent homes improvement work.

Linda Rowlands, treasurer of Bournemouth Churches Housing Association’s Service Users’ and Residents’ Forum, says many tenants she advises are only after one thing: an affordable rent.

‘It doesn’t matter who provides your home,’ she says. ‘People have gone through all sorts of traumatic experiences. The most pressing issue is: how the hell they are going to afford such a high rent?’

For SURF’s members, anti-social behaviour ranks an important second in their priorities list, she adds. ‘We have experienced some pretty horrendous behaviour.’

Inside Housing also asked tenants which political party they trusted to look after social housing. The result is good news for prime minister Gordon Brown’s beleaguered government. Almost half of all respondents put their faith in the Labour Party. The Conservative Party trails Labour by 26 points, scoring just 23 per cent. The Liberal Democrats were most trusted by 10 per cent of those surveyed. The rest are keen to stress their non-partisan status.

The survey also reveals that the National Tenant Voice needs to shout louder about its existence if it is to fulfil its remit of representing tenants. Almost half those asked say they have never heard of it.

But even in ignorance, some tenants’ associations like the sound of an organisation tasked with voicing their views. ‘This sounds a good idea for a lot of people, especially the social housing sector, who are paying huge rents which they cannot afford,’ one says in its response.

Others were well-informed but unhappy about the way it was being set up: ‘I don’t want an appointed, unaccountable [to grassroots tenants], top-down organisation which is not representative of grassroots tenants or elected bottom-up.’

A significant proportion of tenants’ organisations said they would jump at the chance of ditching their landlord in favour for another if given the chance. Twenty-three per cent say they would swap their landlord given the choice. The vast majority – 77 per cent – claim to be happy with their landlords.

‘There are no other options and basically people just want to have a home and be able to live their lives peacefully,’ one respondent says.

Another says it would swap landlord ‘in a heartbeat’ but only if it was sure the switch would be an improvement: ‘We would need genuine guarantees that the neighbourhood and properties would be much better managed as a result of any change.’

One thing is clear: there is considerable pent-up opinion among residents’ groups. With the National Tenant Voice, the hope is they will be able to get their views across.

Report by Keith Cooper. Additional research by Gene Robertson

Have your say

You must sign in to make a comment