With figures showing that more than half of adults in the UK own a pet and many more welcoming pets into their lives during and following the pandemic, we wanted to know your thoughts to help shape our pet policy.
The Social Housing White Paper also recognised the importance of pet ownership and said:
The charter recognises that pets are important to mental health and well-being and that landlords should adopt fair and reasonable policies with regard to pets. Blanket bans without good reason are unlikely to be tolerated.
We asked you;
- If you thought having a pet live at your property was a privilege or a right
- If you thought there were any conditions or restrictions that should be placed on pet owners and to give some examples of what you think these should be (if any)
- Should people ask permission to have a pet or be allowed a pet and we only remove that permission if the pet causes a problem
- What should we do if a pet is causing an issue or disturbance
- How can we support positive pet ownership
- If you could think of any occasions where it would be reasonable for us to have a ‘no pets’ policy
Thank you to all of you who got involved with this consultation.
Amy St Ledger explains;
“We were delighted with the feedback we received on our new pet policy. We only asked questions where tenants could influence the outcome.
Based on what they said, our new policy does not require everyone to request permission to keep a pet providing they meet certain requirements.
We also focus much more on positive pet ownership and commit to working with partners to help our tenants do this.”
Click here to view the new policy.