7 February 2005 - Customers and stakeholders endorse the Rent Service
Work and Pensions Minister, Chris Pond, today announced the key results of the 2004-05 National Customer Satisfaction Survey, and the 2004-05 Local Authority Satisfaction Survey.
The Rent Service is an Executive Agency of the Department for Work and Pensions, and its work centres around the private rented housing sector in England. The main focus of the organisation’s work is:
- To provide a rental valuation service for Housing Benefit purposes, including determining local reference rents and single room rents, and setting local housing allowances in support of the Housing Benefit Pathfinder Schemes. Around 900,000 Housing Benefit related cases are dealt with by the Agency each year.
- To provide fair rent determinations for landlords and tenants. Around 100,000 Fair Rent cases are dealt with each year.
The 2004-05 National Customer Satisfaction Survey consulted all customers whose properties had been inspected by rent officers - both landlords and tenants - about their views on the level of service provided by the Agency. The results revealed that over 94.5% of respondents to the Survey rated The Rent Service’s performance as “Satisfactory” to “Very Good”.
The results of the 2004-05 Local Authority Satisfaction Survey, which consulted some 354 local authority Housing Benefit Managers, were even better. Over 99% of respondents to the Survey rated the level of service provided to the by The Rent Service as “Satisfactory” to “Very Good”.
Reflecting on the results of the two surveys, Work and Pensions Minister, Chris Pond, said:
“I am pleased to hear such a positive reaction from The Rent Service’s customers and stakeholders.
"The Agency has focused its attention on further improving our customer service during 2004-05, and these figures are an encouraging sign that their efforts are beginning to pay off.
"However, The Rent Service aims for continuous improvement year on year, and will be looking for other ways to improve the delivery of its services to customers and stakeholders in 2005-06.”
Notes for editors
- The Rent Service was established as an executive agency of the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions on 1 October 1999. It transferred to the Department for Work and Pensions on 1 April 2004.
- The purpose of the creation of the Agency was to take over the work of the former Rent Officer Service, and bring together a fragmented service operating from over 90 offices in 77 separate registration areas, each of which operated independently of each the other.
- The main objective was to improve the service to customers, in terms of delivery, quality and consistency of rental valuations across England, whilst at the same time reducing the overall cost to the taxpayer.
- The Rent Service currently has 755 staff, operating from 33 offices around England.
- The Rent Service has been working closely with the DWP on Housing Benefit reform, particularly in areas which have introduced Local Housing Allowances.
- To read more about The Rent Service go to: http://www.therentservice.gov.uk
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