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‘Second-class citizens’? Finding out how tenants feel they are treated
Our new survey aims to find out how tenants feel about the way they are treated, their trust in their landlords and their opinions on the government, writes Nic Bliss, campaign director of Stop Social Housing Stigma
‘Second-class citizens’? Finding out how tenants feel they are treated #UKhousingOur new survey aims to find out how tenants feel about the way they are treated, writes Nic Bliss, campaign director of Stop Social Housing Stigma #UKhousingIn the wake of the Grenfell tragedy, the then government published its New Deal for Social Housing green paper. In it, it reflected that “the most consistent theme” raised by tenants in the “8,000 conversations and submissions” behind the green paper was social housing stigma.
Tenants “told us that they were made to feel like second-class citizens”.
The paper continued: “Many people living in England’s four million social homes feel ignored and stigmatised, too often treated with a lack of respect by landlords who appear remote, unaccountable and uninterested in meeting their needs.”
Armed with this information, the New Deal for Social Housing paper devoted a full chapter to tackling stigma and particularly referred to the importance of the work of See the Person – the forerunner name of the Stop Social Housing Stigma campaign.
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Eight years later in 2025, have things improved?
Changes have been made in building safety requirements and it is good that the services that tenants receive from their landlord have now been reinstated into the regulatory framework.
But how do tenants feel now? Do tenants feel less stigmatised? Do tenants feel valued as the “hardworking and honest people” that New Deal for Social Housing identified them as? Do tenants now feel the way that landlords provide services no longer treats them as second-class citizens?
This is what we at Stop Social Housing Stigma are aiming to find out from the national tenant survey we recently launched during a lively workshop about stigma at the TPAS annual conference.
Interest from tenants in the survey is hot. Just over a week after the survey was launched, just over 300 tenants have responded so far.
We want to hear from as many tenants as possible about what they feel. What tenants feel about how they are treated is as important as getting the repairs done.
As well as offering tenants the opportunity to say whatever they want about stigma, the survey aims to find out about how much trust there is in landlords and what tenants think about how much what the government, the regulator and the Housing Ombudsman have done and are doing is tackling social housing stigma.
The prime minister identified the need for culture change during the Grenfell debate in parliament and the deputy prime minister has gone on record several times to say that social housing stigma needs to be tackled. Do tenants feel that what the government is doing is tackling social housing stigma?
The national tenant survey will be open until at least October 2025. We want as many tenants as possible to be given the opportunity to feed back to us what they feel. We encourage everyone who works with tenants to circulate information about the survey to them.
“Do tenants now feel the way that landlords provide services no longer treats them as second-class citizens?”
Some tenants have told us that they do not feel stigmatised at all – that’s as it should be. Sadly, many others have said that they do feel stigmatised, and we want to know the scale of the problem.
As I was writing this comment piece, I remembered an incident from many years ago where a tenant asked me to sit on their complaints review panel hearing. I don’t recall the subject matter of the complaint, but I remember the letter from the housing officer telling the tenant to stop moaning and that they should just be grateful that they had a home. I was shocked that the housing officer had been so brazen as to put it in writing, but even more shocked that the review panel then agreed with the housing officer.
I’d like to think that we have moved forward as far as housing officers who think like this at least know not to put such things in writing. But then sometimes I wonder.
Nic Bliss, campaign director, Stop Social Housing Stigma
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