“We want to get to know all of our customers as people.”

Swindon Borough Council is aiming to change the way it interacts with its social housing tenants, councillors have learned.

Head of housing customer service Stuart Hook told members of the council’s Combatting Inequality Policy Committee (soon to be renamed Building a Fairer Swindon)  that all councils who are still social housing landlords are required by law to conduct what’s known as a tenancy audit every year.

He said: “We go round with a clipboard and we check the people in the house are meant to be living there.

“We ask them if there are any repairs, and we make a check on the need for repairs, whether anyone is being cuckooed, whether there’s been any damage.

“But it’s anxiety-inducing for the tenant, and it’s very focused on the building, and not on the person. And often people aren’t in, and sometimes don’t want to let us in

“So we don’t really know who our customers for housing are, and what they’re needs are, and we either don’t know about, or have ignored the difficult cases – the quiet people who need something but don’t want to say.”

Mr Hook told the councillors of a new programme to replace the checks called Behind Every Door.

He said: “We are going to visit every single home that we let. We are going to meet our customers and we are going to have a meaningful conversation instead of going through a tick list on  a clipboard.”

The aim is to understand who tenants are, and what they need to identify any needs or vulnerabilities that could be addressed. Mr Hook said: “It might be something we can ask partner agencies to look at, or it might be social work.

"Or social care needs, it could be the Live Well team, or we could identify financial difficulties,  or loneliness and isolation and point the customer to where they can get support.”

The sort of questions housing officers will ask include: “How do you feel about your home, and your local area? What do you like most about living here? Do you need more support in your home?”

Eight more housing officers will be recruited to allow officers to know their area better, and Mr Hook said the plan could save the council money in the long run: “If we identify a need earlier, say a small housing adaption, or to help someone out of isolation or financial difficulty, that could save on providing  more urgent services when the problem is much harder to manage or solve later.”