FOUR out of five council house tenants in Burnley claim they have been victim of one or more nuisance problems over the last 12 months, an independent survey reveals.

A substantial 37 per cent of those interviewed felt housing chiefs were too soft on the small minority of nuisance neighbours who seriously breach their tenancy agreements.

And less than half of all tenants feel the council takes enough care when deciding where to house tenants with "special circumstances."

The "Satisfaction Survey" by independent consultants, shows the majority of tenants consider the council to be a good landlord overall , but one which simply does not have the cash to do the job to the best of its abilities.

Repairs to council homes was an area of major criticism, the consultants found.

Over 40 per cent of respondents complained about the quality of repairs and nearly half expressed dissatisfaction with the quality of work.

However, more tenants felt the repairs service had improved over the past year than thought it had declined (16 per cent).

More than a quarter of tenants were unhappy about the condition of their new home when they moved in, but a massive 87 per cent said the would prefer to stay put in their present premises than move home. A third of tenants believe their neighbourhood had got worse over the past 18 months, while 16 per cent felt it had improved.

A big majority wanted more information, contact and advice from their council landlord, the survey shows.

The report concludes that many of the issues are comparatively easy to resolve and have solutions that can be quickly addressed.

The condition of newly-let homes could be dealt with by diverting repair funds into empty houses to bring them up to standard.

The report says the council has already taken action to deal with nuisance.

Council housing chairman Rafique Malik said: "The survey bears out our concern about the future of the housing service.

"We believe we are doing a good job, given our limited resources, but we must find new ways of providing our tenants with the kind of service they have now said they want."

Coun Malik said the council was pressing ahead with its plans to transfer the entire 5,600-home stock to a new Local Housing Company, a move which would provide the millions required to improve council houses and still keep rent rises to around the rate of inflation.

Tenants will be asked to vote on whether they want transfer at ballots planned for late May.

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