Tenants' Thumbs Up for Wigan and Leigh Housing

Thursday 5th March 2009 (ref: 06/09)

Marjorie Marsden
Tenants have given the borough’s largest housing manager a big “thumbs-up” for the services they provide.

Over two thousand tenants were asked by Wigan & Leigh Housing what they thought about their home, their neighbourhood and about the housing services they received from their landlord.

87 per cent said that they were satisfied or very satisfied with the service provided by Wigan and Leigh Housing who manage council housing on behalf of Wigan Council. This was 3.5 per cent higher than when the survey was last done.

Housing bosses are particularly pleased that this survey has been a big increase in “very satisfied” tenants, up 14 per cent on 2006.

Another big improvement in the housing service was the helpfulness of staff. Nearly nine out of ten tenants found staff helpful when they contacted Wigan & Leigh Housing.

Nine out of ten people who replied were also happy with the overall quality of their home and almost as many with its condition and the way that repairs were carried out.

Tenant and Deputy-Chair of Wigan & Leigh Housing’s Board, Marjorie Marsden said:

“We already had one of the highest levels of tenant satisfaction in the country and we’re delighted that more tenants are happy with our services than when we last asked them in 2006. We are not complacent though, we know that we don’t always get it right and there are areas where we can improve. Wigan & Leigh Housing is currently carrying out a major review of how we involve customers in shaping our services, how they access them and how we treat them when they do. This survey has given us lots of valuable information about what tenants think and we are using this to further improve housing services.”

Tenant satisfaction with their landlord is seen as very important by the Government. Tenants have to be asked their views at least every two years. Satisfaction with Wigan and Leigh Housing’s services was already one of the highest of any metropolitan council’s in the country when the last available figures were published.