Introduction and Context
The National Trust has been responsible for the upkeep of 81 houses within Sherborne Parish for nearly 40 years. Being the Parish’s predominant Landlord, and owner of circa 4,000 acres of farm and park lands within and around Sherborne Parish, the National Trust has a significant impact on the social wellbeing of Sherborne Parish and its residents.
A significant number of National Trust Tenants have made representations to the Parish Council about the quality of their accommodation and experiences of the National Trust as their Landlord.
In accordance with its responsibility to the Community, the Parish Council agreed it was necessary to gain a formal overview of the issues National Trust Tenants are experiencing.
Summary
The results of the Parish Council’s survey identify high levels of dissatisfaction with the quality of Sherborne’s National Trust (NT) housing and poor-quality customer service provided by the NT. Most notably, widespread presence of damp, inadequate heating systems, poor quality workmanship, and slow response times. It is concerning that after circa 40 years of ownership, the NT are seemingly unable to provide many of their Tenants with even a most basic level of customer satisfaction.
Recommendations
The Parish Council now urges the NT to:
- Attend to the existing reported maintenance backlog and inform each Tenant when their specific concerns will be addressed.
- Conduct an independent housing condition survey for each of the houses in the NT’s care.
- Create a resulting plan of action designed to bring each house to the nationally recognised standard, at the very least, of repair and energy efficiency expected by Tenants, and in many cases, demanded by relevant statutory standards.
- Communicate a resulting plan of rectification works to each Tenant including committed timescales.
- Continue to update the Parish Council and Sherborne TANT group on progress pertaining to the above points.
To measure progress, the Parish Council proposes to repeat the survey during early Q4 2024.
In the meantime, concerns raised by individual Tenants to the Parish Council, or to the Parish Council by Sherborne’s TANT group, will be circulated to the NT and recorded within the Parish Council meeting minutes as additions to this report.
Useful information concerning the responsibilities of the National Trust, and their commitment to Tenants, can be found within the Residential Tenants Handbook, April 2022 via the National Trust website.
