Housing tenants increasingly satisfied with the service, according to latest survey

More than 1,500 tenants were interviewed by phone in Autumn 2021, in-line with the Scottish Housing Regulator’s guidance as its considered that telephone interviewing provides the most comprehensive and representative results.

Respondents represented each of Moray Council’s ‘housing market areas’: Buckie, Cairngorms, Elgin, Forres, Keith and Speyside.

The results, which are available in full on Moray Council’s website, showed the biggest increases were in:

• tenants satisfied with the opportunities to participate in decision making (up 27% from 68.8% in 2018 to 96.2% in 2021);
• tenants who feel the landlord (Moray Council) is good at keeping them informed about services and decisions (up 15% from 76.3% in 2018 to 91.3% in 2021);
• tenants satisfied with the quality of their home (up 9% from 73.9% in 2018 to 82.7% in 2021)
• tenants satisfied with contribution to management of the neighbourhood (up 9% from 80.3% in 2018 to 89.6% in 2021)

Of those who responded, 86.4% feel the rent for their property represents good value – higher than the local authority average of 81.8%.

Chair of Moray Council’s Housing and Community Safety Committee, Cllr Louise Nicol, said: “I’m pleased to see that satisfaction with the housing services our tenants receive is increasing.

“I’m particularly glad that tenants feel involved in decision making, and that they feel their rent is good value for money. We know there are other areas to improve on where we still fall below the national average for satisfaction rates, and also recognise that tenants are seeking improvements like replacements windows, heating systems, bathrooms and kitchens.

“Each year we spend millions of pounds on improving our housing stock – more than £10 million of improvements was budgeted for 2021/22 – and we’ll continue to invest in these for the benefit of our tenants.”