- Target:
- Housing Minister, Shadow Housing Minister, The Housing Corporation
- Region:
- United Kingdom
In recent times, RSLs have received the highest level of public funding, gained huge increases in property portfolio values / sales and inflation busting rent increases with their Chief Executives now enjoying commercial level salaries (£200k+ in some cases), yet the benefits of this commercial type status ( under a charity umbrella ) does not extend to Customer Care.
Professor John Hills ( report February 2007 ) recently indicated the dissatisfaction felt among tenants.
Ed Mayo, Chief Executive of the National Consumer Council, recently said that social landlords needed a reality check on their performance on customer satisfaction. ‘All too often housing providers are not as good as they think they are’.
An increase in tenant started forums and websites confirms this.
Tenants feel thwarted in their attempts to effect real change and receive a better level of Customer Care - there appears to be little ‘ consequence ’ from the Housing Corporation should the RSL not perform well. Audit Commission reports do not appear to reflect tenant opinion as regard RSL performance.
Leaseholders are expected to fund long overdue repairs ( needed before stock transfer ), quality and level of routine maintenance and gardening does not reflect the income received through management fees.
Current home ownership schemes offer very low discounts, meaning uptake is still not possible for most, rental charges on shared - ownership is excessive and the prices of shared - ownership properties ( £300k in some cases ) realistically means that many purchases will never fully own them. Housing Associations have received discounted properties from developers ( following planning dept. negotiations ) yet the purchaser has not benefited from this process paying full market value.
We, the undersigned, are tenants / leaseholders of Social Housing Landlords
( RSLs ) and we declare our dissatisfaction at the poor level of service being given to tenants by RSLs.
The main causes of complaint include poor repairs service, poor response in regard of anti - social behaviour, ineffectual resolutions to noise nuisance, failure to implement Terms of Tenancy, indifferent attitude to tenants, general poor and slow response. This situation is compounded by lack of genuine tenant consultation and RSLs having no accountability.
Further, the current home ownership schemes ( following years of think - tanks costing multi - millions ) continue to offer limited options to those that wish to remove themselves from social housing rental.
Immediate reform is needed including:
Giving tenants at least 50% of places on Management Boards ( some RSLs have 20,000+ properties yet not one tenant sits on the Board );
Tenants Complaints Panel to include 50% tenants;
The creation of a truly independent regulator;
Large fines / withdrawal of funding should be placed upon RSLs that do not perform properly as regards customer service, best value;
Limitation of the charges placed on leaseholders for repairs / maintenance;
Review of current ownership schemes which are still not realistic for many;
Urgent review of whether current style of RSLs is capable of delivering the requirements of tenants in regard of Customer Care ( there is currently a ‘ one size fits all approach ’ ). Real tenant consultation is needed.
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The Reform Housing Associations and Policies petition to Housing Minister, Shadow Housing Minister, The Housing Corporation was written by Housing Tenant and is in the category Miscellaneous at GoPetition.