Council housing survey scrutinised by councillors
The survey, which includes responses from tenants in Newtown and throughout Montgomeryshire, was discussed at yesterday's Economy, Residents, Communities and Governance scrutiny committee.
MyNewtown published results of the survey last week which showed a mixed response from tenants. Newtown mayor and Powys councillor, David Selby, said it was difficult to judge the results as there was no comparison for them.
This year’s survey included seven questions from The Welsh Government that they expected all 22 councils in Wales to use.
PCC added three of its own questions to the survey which was done by Beaufort Research from Cardiff.
In April they spoke to 713 PCC tenants in phone interviews spread across the county.
It was followed in May by an in-house telephone survey of 128 tenants as part of a call-back exercise of which there were 57 responses.
Head of Housing Service, Nina Davies, said: “Both surveys show a level of customer satisfaction below desirable levels. The housing service accepts this and has put in place training for customer relations for all staff.
She said that a review of processes and procedures was taking place and a new approach – “Love where you live” was taking shape.
Scrutiny committee chairman, Cllr Mathew Dorrance, said: “65 per cent overall satisfaction means 35 per-cent are unsatisfied, let’s not try and gloss over this and be brutally honest with what the situation actually is for our tenants.”
Cllr David Selby said that data for comparison was needed: “We have no idea if this is better or worse, or how we compare with other local authorities?”
Affordable Housing officer, Terry Flynn, answered: “The comparison runs from 2008 to 2019 but is based on different questions asked in different ways. It’s not a perfect comparison.
“The differences show, there’s been a steady decline in satisfaction, except for 2017. We have to be brutally honest and accept that fact.”
Cllr Selby added: “This is a service we provide to tenants and we have an absolute obligation to be good at what we do.
“What do you believe would be a good service, what percentage should we be sitting at with these key measures?”
Mr Flynn said that the ideal would be 100 per-cent.
Housing portfolio holder, Cllr James Evans, blamed work being done to improve council houses under the Welsh Housing Quality Standard (WHQS) for bringing the survey figures down.
Cllr Evans said: “WHQS is not going to help these figures, people are going to be disrupted by these works.
“This is an important document that’s going to go some way to addressing these problems.”
The survey showed:
• 65 per cent overall satisfaction
• 77 per cent satisfied with quality of the home
• 84 per cent happy with neighbourhood as a place to live
• 71 per cent felt rent provides value for money
• 65 per cent felt service charge provides value for money
• 54 per cent satisfied with repairs and maintenance
• 47 per-cent fairly or very satisfied that PCC Housing Service Listens to their views and acts on them
• 78 per-cent agree that housing has friendly and approachable staff
• 62 per-cent agree the housing service has a good reputation in their area
• 72 per-cent trust the housing service
Photo: Powys County Council's offices at The Park, Newtown
By Elgan Hearn, Local Democracy Reporting Service
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