We’re happy, say council tenants
By Elgan Hearn, Local Democracy Reporter
These are the findings from a Welsh Audit Officer (WAO) report which looked at the work being done in Powys towards achieving Welsh Housing Quality Standard (WHQS).
Gwilym Bury from the WAO was at the Council to discuss the findings with the Health Care and Housing Scrutiny Committee.
Mr Bury, said: “We’ve conducted this piece of work with other councils who still have housing stock. We undertook a very comprehensive phone survey and spoke to a total of 321 households which is about 6% of the tenant population. We also met with many members, officers and tenants groups.
“Our findings were: the Council is making progress towards achieving the WHQS for many components and most Council tenants are satisfied with the quality of the service and their homes.
“But it needs to accelerate its approach to ensuring tenants’ homes are warm. Tenant engagement has worked well in the past but now needs to be built upon and strengthened to gather more views.
“Most council tenants are very satisfied with the quality of the service and their homes. Although we have some proposals for improvement, we also have a lot of people who are very happy in their homes.”
But Councillors were not so convinced.
Cllr Jackie Charlton, said: “I realise what is said in theses are good results but when I read them I’m surprised they are being seen like that.
“We have 67% of tenants we spoke to said that the Council had informed them about their maintenance responsibilities as a leaseholder. But it also means that 33 per cent don’t believe that. If you look at it that way, it’s bad.”
Cllr Charlton continued: “We should be looking at the negatives and those who are not satisfied. We’re being told that this is good, the WHQS seem to have a low threshold.”
Committee chairman, Cllr Gwilym Williams, added: “If you have damp in your house it does not matter if you’re 1% or 20% it affects you, and that’s the point we are trying to make.
“A private landlord with 20% of tenants unsatisfied would have the perception of being a bad landlord. The report sounds good because the majority are happy but there are some that are not and we should concentrate on those.”
Mr Bury added: “The results for this Council are much better than I found elsewhere.”
He added that other results for comparison were available of the WAO website.
The survey found:
· 83% are satisfied with the service they receive
· 63% feel the Council listens to their views on their home
· 83% are satisfied with the improvement works carried out to their homes
· 73% were satisfied with the environment outside their home
· 90% were happy with the quality of their kitchens
· 90% though their neighbourhood is a good place to live
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