HOUSING officers in Stockport suffer the highest levels of verbal abuse out of all council housing officers in England and Wales.
Local authorities reported almost 1,200 incidents of verbal and physical abuse in the past three years, including some involving attacks using animals.
The incidents reported by 184 councils included 796 physical assaults and 400 cases of verbal intimidation. The most cases of verbal abuse were recorded in Stockport (63), Kingston upon Thames (57), Dudley (44) and the London borough of Sutton (44).
Highest levels of physical assaults were recorded in Cambridge (69), Hull (45), Gwynedd (44), Leicester (32) and Westminster (31), according to the figures released by Conservative housing spokesman Grant Shapps.
Mr Shapps, who collected the figures through freedom of information requests to councils, said that they were the result of a housing crisis created by the Labour government.
Less new social housing for rent was built in every year between 1997 and 2007 than in any year under the previous Conservative administration from 1979 to 1997, said Mr Shapps.
This was part of the reason why 1,770,116 households - around 4.5m people - were on the local authorities' housing waiting lists in England last year.
Mr Shapps said: "Nothing can ever justify violence against employees who are being forced to cope with this government's appalling record of high housing waiting lists.
"I'm concerned because these results reveal a very worrying level of violence towards housing officers who find themselves on the front line of Labour's deepening housing crisis."
Housing officers are responsible for managing local authority and housing association properties.
Their duties include allocating accommodation, setting rent levels and dealing with arrears.
They also inspect properties and deal with anti-social behaviour and squatters.
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Bean of the yard, stalybridge (26/03/2009 at 07:19)
Jay B, oldham (26/03/2009 at 10:18)
Joe Pub, Manchester (27/03/2009 at 02:22)
Work carried out on the properties are secomd rate and a complete waste of time having the job done in the first place. Argue I have argued till blue in the face, and when you tell them that if they could do the job proerly they would be sacked as they would be to dangerous to the council as they would expest apay rise, so these people deserve, what happens to them.Myself I give them rice, and if they don't like it I give theh some more. So the next time you phone them they are either on leave, off sick or out of the office, This is why people rant and rage at them they are stupid, and when they haven't got an answer to reply with there is always somebody on the line for them, i wonder if this is just to get rid of you.
Beleive me this is true.
Knowall, stretford end (27/03/2009 at 17:34)
Angie33 , Manchester (27/03/2009 at 21:02)
When things changed and due to work and neighbour nuisance problems I met them often I had to realize I didnt know anything about how they operated.
Id assumed they had an interest in housing.No its just a job.Id assumed they must be reasonably intelligent to deal with the complex issues tenants have.No.Id assumed that if I new officer arrived and came to see me that they already knew the history of the problem.Not at all,and didnt want to know either.
One on going problem we had over several years had 12 different housing officers,when you could speak with them that was.You were going over the same story constantly,each one believing they were the maverick who was going to sort it.
However long yopu,d lived there or local knowledge you had was of no interest.EVER.
Now I know.Now I would do things differently if I had a problem.I would never allow mysrelf to be treated so appallingly.
The neighbour nuisance team were a bigger nuisance than the neighbour and made everything 10 times worse.Again people on an ego trip trying to deal with complex people problems.Never in a million years.Where do they get them from.
When they mess up completely theyre just moved to another department.Youre relieved theyve gone then phone a different dept and they answer the phone.I could go on all night.People get aggressive?Im not at all surprised.They are probably being driven insane.