More than half social housing tenants do not think their landlord is doing enough to tackle crime.
A survey of 1500 social tenants by pollster MORI found 61% thought their landlord did not play an active role in tackling crime, with 22% believing their landlord did nothing.

The figures were even higher for families, and social tenants were twice as likely as owner-occupiers to say that crime was a serious problem in their area.

The survey was paid for by BT, which is launching an alarm for landlords this week.

Tim Winter, national organiser of the Social Landlords Crime and Nuisance Group, admitted there was 鈥渁 huge discrepancy between the good social landlords and those that are less proactive鈥�.

He said some used covert surveillance, 鈥渄esigned out鈥� crime and provided special help for dysfunctional families. Winter also said alarms could play a part, and that some landlords already supplied victims of crime with mobile phones to help them feel more secure.

鈥淭he fear of crime is growing but not the reality, and I don鈥檛 think it is necessarily any worse in social housing than elsewhere,鈥� he added.

Alf Chandler, chair of Tenants and Residents Organisations of England, said complaints of crime were not restricted only to tenants: 鈥淵ou can get as many problems from people who have bought their homes.鈥�

Source

Housing Today