The findings from the latest 2019-20 English Housing Survey show that social tenants have the lowest levels of life satisfaction (71%); are least likely to believe that life is worthwhile (74%), and have the lowest levels of happiness (70%) compared to all other housing groups. The survey also found that social renters also experienced the highest degree of anxiety (32%).
Tenants in the private sector demonstrated much better mental health, with over two-thirds satisfied with life (73%) and 78% felt that life was worthwhile. A further 73% said they were happy and just 29% experienced anxiety.
Not surprisingly, the happiest group were homeowners with 79% satisfied with life, 81% believing that life is worthwhile, 78% were happy, while 25% said they were anxious.
The survey also found that social renting is the most static of the three main housing groups with 145,000 moves among the 4m in 2019-20 in the sector. Some 23,000 people moved from the social to the private rented sector with an undisclosed number (because the sample size is so small) moving into owner-occupation.
The PRS had 703,000 moves in 2019-20 within its 4.4m renters with 131,000 new households; 192,000 buying a property, and 74,000 moving into social renting. 99,000 People moving from property-owning into private renting accounted for 99,0000.
Mish Liyanage, CEO of Pick My Pad, comments: “It’s very sad that so many social tenants are suffering from poor mental health. The pandemic has caused all kinds of issues and as the lockdown measures ease, it is incumbent on the PRS industry to take action to provide greater support to tenants.
“According to the charity Mind, housing and mental health are often linked. Poor mental health can make it harder to cope with housing problems while being homeless or having problems in your home can make your mental health worse.
“With the high yielding social housing market, landlords need to work with their tenants because if they are looked after, they will be more content and are much more likely to look after the property. It is important that landlords maintain dialogue – verbally and by email/SMS, so that tenants are comfortable raising any issue or problem with the property. This could be the difference between a tenant reporting a simple leaking tap or a burst pipe, that has flooded the kitchen.
“As most of the landlords have full-time jobs it is important that social landlords work with an agency who has extensive expertise on social housing. We at Pick My Pad have over 100 years of combined experience in social housing to provide the best service to tenants and achieve the highest yields for the landlords.”
