When I joined Home as Chief Executive in September, I was aware that we have a reputation as one of the UK's largest providers of affordable homes. Our reputation, unfortunately, is not as one of the best providers. I am keen to improve our reputation with you, our customers. We haven't always got it right in the past, but we want to make improvements to our services that benefit you.

To help us to improve the services we provide you, and to make our homes places where people really want to live, we need to have more information about who our customers are and what services they want and need, both now and in the future.

Our services need to be easily available and accessible to you. To make sure all of our customers can use our services, I am asking you to take a few minutes to fill in the short questionnaire. The questionnaire asks for information about you, and the people living in your home.

You may think that some of the information we're asking for is quite sensitive. We're asking for this information so that we can make sure that the services that we provide meet the needs of all of our customers. If you don't want to answer, you don't have to. Just tick the box marked “prefer not to say”, or simply leave it blank.

I can't promise you that we will be able to meet every individual need right now, but the information that you give us will help us to improve our services in the future. I'm keen to collect this information from all of our customers. This means we may contact you again, by post or phone call or by visiting you at home. You do not have to give us any information we ask you for, but it would help us to improve our services if you do.

I can assure you that we'll treat all of the information you give to us as confidential (and we'll use and store this information in line with the Data Protection Act 1998). Only Home employees will have access to your information, although we may share relevant information with partners who are directly involved in providing housing-management services to you and your household. For example, we may ask a repairs contractor to knock loudly at your door if you have a hearing problem.

Yours sincerely Mark Henderson Chief Executive