BME London Landlords Tenants Forum are the Tenant representative group of BME London Landlords Collaboration, 13 BME led Housing Organisations (Registered social landlords) that manage over 6300 London homes. We work together in collaboration delivering ambitious, innovative and influential projects that provide positive outcomes and enhance value for money for our residents communities and organisations.
The BME London Landlords Tenant Forum consist of Tenant Representatives from each member organisation within the collaboration. With each Tenant Rep currently engaging with each organisations Chief Executive on how best to introduce and implement the Together with Tenants Initiative within the respective organisations.
We are happy for you to include us in the published list of respondents to this consultation.
Consultation Response
In relation to The Regulator for Social Housing’s consultation we as the BME London Landlords Tenants Forum would to give our response in two ways firstly, namely firstly to endorse the London Tenants Federation’s submission to the UK Parliament Levelling Up, Housing and Community Committee call for evidence as part of their enquiry into the regulation of social housing in November 2021. As this submission provides a comprehensive overview and context of how we as social housing tenants feel about the state of social housing today, and considerations for what regulation of social housing needs to address. Further this in response to the questions listed as part of the TSM consultation we have listed our responses in red to the questions listed below:
Question 1: Overall satisfaction
Taking everything into account, how satisfied or dissatisfied are you with the service provided by your landlord?
Do you think this is a good question to ask tenants?
Give a scale out of 10
Question 2: Repairs to your home
Has your landlord carried out a repair to your home in the last 12 months?
If yes, how satisfied or dissatisfied are you with the repairs service you have received to your home from your landlord over the last 12 months?
Do you think this is a good question to ask tenants?
Perhaps 12 months is too long a period to remember, Maybe reduce to 6 months
Question 3: How long it takes to repair your home
Has your landlord carried out a repair to your home in the last 12 months?
If yes, how satisfied or dissatisfied are you with the time taken to complete your most recent repair after you reported it?
Do you think this is a good question to ask tenants?
Perhaps 12 months is too long a period to remember, Maybe reduce to 6 months
Question 4: A well-maintained and safe home
Thinking specifically about the building you live in, how satisfied or dissatisfied are you that your landlord provides a home that is well maintained and safe for you to live in?
Do you think this is a good question to ask tenants?
Give a scale out of 10 and room for qualitative answer
Question 5: Listening to tenants
How satisfied or dissatisfied are you with the extent to which your landlord listens to your views and acts upon them?
Do you think this is a good question to ask tenants?
Give a scale out of 10 and room for qualitative answer
Question 6: Keeping tenants informed
How satisfied or dissatisfied are you with the way your landlord keeps you informed about things that matter to you as a tenant?
Do you think this is a good question to ask tenants?
Give a scale out of 10 and room for qualitative answer
Question 7: Treating tenants fairly and with respect
To what extent do you agree or disagree with the following statement?
My landlord treats me fairly and with respect.
Do you think this is a good question to ask tenants?
Give a scale out of 10 and room for qualitative answer
Question 8: Communal areas
Do you live in a building with communal areas, either inside or outside, that you share with other people who live in the building?
If yes, how satisfied or dissatisfied are you that your landlord keeps these communal areas clean, safe and well-maintained?
Communal areas are places you share with other people.
This can be inside or outside the building. Things like:
• hallways and stairs
• gardens and driveways
• rooms you share with other people
Do you think this is a good question to ask tenants?
Give a scale out of 10 and room for qualitative answer
For question 9 we have 2 questions we think might be good to ask. We want to know which one you think is best.
- Question 9a: Your local area
Thinking about what your landlord does to improve your neighbourhood as a place to live, how satisfied or dissatisfied are you with the extent to which your landlord makes a positive contribution to your neighbourhood?
- Question 9b: Your local area
How satisfied or dissatisfied are you with your neighbourhood as a place to live?
Question 9a or
Question 9b?
9a
Question 10: Anti-social behaviour
How satisfied or dissatisfied are you with your landlord’s approach to handling anti-social behaviour?
Anti-social behaviour is when neighbours or other people make you feel worried or scared at home or near your home.
this could be by playing music very loudly
shouting or swearing at you
letting their visitors do these things
Do you think this is a good question to ask tenants?
Give a scale out of 10 and room for qualitative answer
Question 11: How complaints are handled
How satisfied or dissatisfied are you with your landlord’s approach to complaints handling?
A complaint means telling your landlord you are not happy about something they have done.
Do you think this is a good question to ask tenants?
Give a scale out of 10 and room for qualitative answer
Question 12: Making a complaint
To what extent do you agree or disagree with the following statement?
I know how to make a complaint to my landlord if I am
Do you think this is a good question to ask tenants?
Give a scale out of 10 and room for qualitative answer
Do you think 12 questions is:
• too many questions?
• not enough questions?
• the right number of questions to ask?
Do you think there are other questions landlords should ask?
We think you should keep questions limited to a maximum of 10. There is a danger of losing interest if more there are more than 10 questions
We think that:
• landlords with lots of houses should have to ask tenants these questions every year
• landlords with not many houses should have to ask the questions every 1 or 2 years
Do you think this is a good idea?
Good idea.
Information from landlords
Our plan is for landlords to tell people how many:
• homes meet the Decent Homes Standard. This means a home is good and well looked after by the landlord
•repairs are done on time
• gas safety checks are done
• fire safety checks are done
• water safety checks are done
How many:
• asbestos safety checks are done.
Asbestos is something that used to be put in buildings. It can be dangerous if asbestos is not looked after properly
•lift safety checks are done
• anti-social behaviour cases are reported to them
• complaints landlords get
• complaints are dealt with on time
Do you think these are the right things landlords should tell people about?
If you think these are not the right things, why is that?
These are good questions
We think that to tell tenants how well they are doing:
• landlords should have to give tenants all this information every year and
• landlords with lots of houses would have to send us this information every year too
Do you think this is a good idea?
These are good questions. We believe you should end with a final question asking for any other feedback.
