Council tenant satisfaction levels have dropped since 2019, a recent survey revealed. 

Winchester City Council's latest tenants' survey showed a drop in overall satisfaction from 87 per cent to 78 per cent. 

The results were discussed at the city council's housing cabinet committee on Tuesday, November 14. 

The survey, by ARP Research, said: “Overall tenant satisfaction with the services provided by Winchester City Council has fallen to 78 per cent compared to the 87 per cent achieved in 2019, having been reasonably stable since 2015. However, this is consistent with sector-wide trends as customer satisfaction scores have been significantly impacted by the pandemic, cost of living crisis, inflationary rent increases and shortages in labour and materials.

READ MORE: Photos: University of Winchester students celebrate graduation

“Overall, 938 tenants took part in the survey, which represented a response rate of 46 per cent of those households selected in the sample.”

The highest levels of satisfaction were: being treated fairly and with respect; home is safe; and service overall. The highest levels of dissatisfaction were with: handling complaints; cleanliness of communal areas; and approach to handling anti-social behaviour.

Cllr Jane Rutter said: “Anti-social behaviour is reflective of wider societal issues we're facing.”

Council officers Janette Palmer and Gillian Knight told the meeting what they were doing with the results. 

Ms Palmer said: “The work we are doing overall should filter into the complaints. We have improved our management of complaints.”

Ms Knight said: “We are focussing on getting repairs right first time. Often there are communication issues. We currently do around 1,500 repairs per month. We do get it right a lot, but if we don't it can go catastrophically wrong. 

“We evict very few tenants. We need to support victims and perpetrators of anti-social behaviour.”

Cllr Chris Westwood said: “We need to make sure issues can be easily reported and they are dealt with quickly.”