Doubts are being raised over whether the National Housing Customer Satisfaction Survey should be carried out this year, as homebuilders still wait to find out how they fared individually in last year's first-ever national survey of new homebuyers' opinions of new homes.
"As the detailed results have been so delayed there is little time for homebuilders to absorb them before the next survey takes place, so the next report is bound to find no change," said marketing consultant Malcolm Pitcher. "The Forum has taken on an enormous task. I would like to see it surveying 2001 legal completions and reporting in 2002 to give homebuilders a chance." "Our advice is that it is probably not worth doing because the Housing Forum has not explained what happened last time, although I think that if we do have a survey this year we will do better," said Ian Randall, regional managing director of Laing Homes. "The survey should be done every year, but they need to get their act together. People want to know how they did," said Mick Noble, managing director of Stamford Homes.
The first national survey results were announced last October. Homebuilders were promised they would be able to buy more detailed reports of their individual results soon after. Since then a more detailed generic report of the survey's findings has been made available by the Housing Forum, at a cost of £75 plus VAT, but homebuilders covered by the survey are still waiting for their individual results.
"They should be available within weeks," said Mehban Chowdery, project manager with the Housing Forum. "Most of the housebuilders have asked for fairly detailed reports. Now the systems are in place so in future we should be able to provide reports a lot faster." The Forum's customer satisfaction survey working group is due to decide this month whether this year's survey will go ahead.
