A COMPREHENSIVE survey to address housing needs across the whole of Vale Royal is due to start this month.

Vale Royal Borough Council has appointed consultants Fordham Research to carry out the assessment on its behalf.

The survey will involve distributing 5,300 survey forms to a random sample of households across the borough.

These have been selected from the council tax register and include owner-occupiers, local authority and housing tenants, and also tenants in the private rented sector.

The purpose of the survey is to collect information about the present and old future housing needs of people living within Vale Royal, in a bid to allow the council to plan how to meet these needs and ensure resources are directed to where they are most needed.

And it is hoped that as many households as possible who receive a questionnaire will respond to ensure the information collected is accurate.

Councillor Brian Lloyd, lead councillor for housing, said: "A good home is central to a good quality of life.

"This work will greatly assist the council in planning how the housing requirements of the whole community can be met, particularly those in need of affordable housing.

"I would urge anyone who receives a questionnaire to respond, so we have the most up-to-date and reliable information possible."

Individual replies to the survey will be treated confidentially and only the overall statistics produced will be used in a report to the council in May.

The results will provide valuable information to develop the council's housing strategy, Local Plan and other borough-wide strategies.

They will also be used to help the council in its annual bid to the Government for funding and help housing associations bid for public money towards the cost of providing affordable homes.

htutt@guardiangrp.co.uk