Anti-social behaviour top of tenants concerns

Anti social behaviour, keeping promises and improving safety and security were top of the concerns raised by tenants of the Newtown-based Mid Wales Housing Association which revealed 84 per cent of tenants are "very satisfied" or "satisfied" with the organisation's service.

An independent survey was carried out by the Association to find out what its tenants throught. And it has already responded to concerns of anti-social behaviour by appointing an officer dedicated to dealing with the issue, as highlighted by MyNewtown two months ago.

The Association’s Chief Executive, Shane Perkins, said: “We are pleased  with these results which show that we are delivering our core values of “excellence” and “caring” but critically, our tenants have also told us what is most important to them, so we can concentrate our efforts on improving further those key services into the future. I want our tenants to be delighted with us and not just satisfied”.

The survey asked what is important to tenants and where did tenants feel they receive the highest customer satisfaction,  as well as areas the Association should be focussing on as priorities for improvement in the future.

Areas of most importance to customers were helpfulness of staff and responding to individual needs,  whilst the areas of  greatest satisfaction included choices of how to pay rent, opportunities for getting involved and an easy to understand process to apply for housing.

The main areas for improvements were dealing with anti-social behaviour, keeping promises and improving safety and security. Mr Perkins  said: "We have already responded to one of these demands, by having a dedicated member of staff dealing with anti-social behaviour and, I am confident, that our plans for next year will improve other areas. It may be that in the next survey we should ask how many tenants are delighted with us?”

A full version of the survey report can be found on the Association’s website at www.mid-walesha.co.uk