10 signatures reached
To: Registered Social Housing Providers at Homes 4 Wiltshire
Ensure social housing in Wiltshire comes with essential carpets, curtains and flooring
People using food banks in Wiltshire are driven to need emergency food aid partly due to a lack of flooring and curtains provided in social housing.
We are calling on Registered Social Housing Providers in Wiltshire to provide fit-for-purpose flooring and window coverings in all areas of their properties. This will prevent tenants having to spend hundreds or thousands of pounds to make a property liveable, or going without essential items such as carpet, curtains and flooring.
Why is this important?
Currently, social housing providers don’t legally have to provide flooring in properties beyond bathrooms and kitchens, or any curtains. This means many tenants in Wiltshire move into properties that are empty, unfurnished, cold shells.
Nationally, 29% of private rented properties are let as furnished or partly furnished compared to just 2% of social rented properties. National Citizens Advice data shows that people living in social housing are almost twice as likely to need to use a food bank as people living in privately rented housing, and a lack of furnishings is reported to contribute to this figure.
The main impact of moving into a bare home includes the cost of buying flooring and curtains, which can push households into financial hardship and reduce their ability to pay rent and bills. If households are unable to spend the hundreds of pounds needed to make a property liveable, they might live with bare floors that are a safety hazard and create dust, and in a cold property with no privacy due to a lack of curtains. In every town in Wiltshire, there are cold and bare houses, some with cardboard for flooring and tarpaulin or sheets for curtains, because these basic items weren't provided.
"It was very overwhelming having all of that to contend with. People moving into social housing are usually people with very limited resources, flooring especially is such a significant cost, going without is very difficult, especially with young children. I personally ended up in debt, which I'm still paying off, 3 years later, due to the amount of work that needed doing. I did not know that no flooring at all would be provided." - Quote from a Wiltshire tenant via our campaign survey.
"It was very overwhelming having all of that to contend with. People moving into social housing are usually people with very limited resources, flooring especially is such a significant cost, going without is very difficult, especially with young children. I personally ended up in debt, which I'm still paying off, 3 years later, due to the amount of work that needed doing. I did not know that no flooring at all would be provided." - Quote from a Wiltshire tenant via our campaign survey.
Bare homes affect mental and physical health, the wellbeing of children, and contribute to social isolation. Providing flooring and curtains before tenants move in is linked to reduced rent arrears, longer tenancies and a range of other benefits around finances, health and wellbeing.
How it will be delivered
This petition is part of the An Empty House Isn't A Home campaign, organised by tenants who've moved into empty social properties, and the Community Organising Team at Devizes and District Foodbank