Yahoo News The Essex council landlord voted one of the worst in the county by its tenants
A previous headline of this article incorrectly reported that Brentwood Council was 'voted the worst landlord in the county by its tenants'. In fact, Brentwood Council was voted the 3rd worst, behind Basildon and Colchester. The headline has been amended accordingly and we apologise for the error.
Brentwood Council has been rated as one of the worst social landlords in Essex by their tenants. Last year new legislation required social landlords, such as councils, housing associations and other private registered providers - to generate and publish tenant satisfaction measures.
Brentwood - which has just under 2,500 council-owned homes and 454 leasehold homes - has said the overall satisfaction figure of 56.9 per cent - which was also one of the worst in Essex - “did not come as a shock”. The council have said that “all themes that have been identified throughout this process have already been known to us, but it has allowed us to focus our resources specifically where residents want changes.”
But they said that they are now focusing on improving complaints handling after just 25 per cent of tenants were satisfied with the way their complaints were handled - the third worst among the 12 districts in Essex who had published results. It adds that, generally, housing associations score higher in perception-based measures than a local authority due to the wider services the council provide.
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Brentwood Borough Council awarded Axis a £3m, 10-year contract covering repairs and maintenance to its properties in 2019. Lauren Stretch – director of housing said at a Housing, Health and Community Committee in November 25: "Ultimately these are satisfaction measures and we would like to see them higher.
"I think we're on a journey and I think we've been open in this committee over the last 12 months about where we starting from and where we're improving. I think it takes a lot longer than us making the improvements on the ground to actually come through that people have that trust and that we're building up on that."
Of the councils in charge of their own council stock, Uttlesford had the highest overall satisfaction rate - where 81 per cent of its tenants were satisfied. Tendring District Council with an 80 per cent satisfaction rate was also rated highly by its tenants. Colchester and Basildon councils received overall satisfaction measures of 48 per cent and 36 per cent respectively and satisfaction ratings regarding complaint handling of 23 per cent and 13 per cent respectively. Castle Point Borough Council failed to collect tenant satisfaction measures by the end of March 2024, which all landlords are now required to do annually. As a result, the council has received a ‘C3’ grading, meaning there are serious failings it needs to address.
Ms Stretch said: “So the handling of complaints - my concern is this is very low and it is an area for improvement. Complaints handling is the bit that we are taking forward this year."
She added: "We'd all like the scores better than this, and hopefully, over time, they will be. But perception is very difficult to turn. And it shows we've got a long way to go with our tenants to build up that trust and we're on the journey of that."
