MP's survey of Leeds tower blocks put on hold due to coronavirus

Rachel Reeves, the MP for Leeds West, has 26 tower blocks in her constituency - the highest proportion for all the Leeds constituencies.

Since being re-elected in December she and her team have been taking and re-collecting surveys that have been put out to residents asking what are the issues and concerns they have in their block.

It follows from a first survey she did back in 2012 and was prompted to repeat it after getting stuck in a lift in The Heights at Armley.

On the back of that survey, the management of council housing was brought back in-house and there have been improvements to the running ever since.

Mrs Reeves added: “The council agreed they could have those things. Things did improve and people can have pride and make it their home.”

Around 100 surveys have been returned so far but due to restrictions on social distancing and self-isolating it has been put on hold until after the lockdown.

However, of those responses, the main issues listed appear to be cleanliness of communal areas, broken lifts and disrepair.

The MP added: “I went to The Heights before Christmas and the lift broke so there is the same problem but I don’t think it is as bad as it was eight years ago in terms of that. Cleaning has improved but there are issues with anti-social behaviour.

“You have to make a bit of an effort to get into the tower blocks and I have always tried to get around.

“The problem is a lot of people get put in tower blocks because it is the only thing that is available and they don’t want to be there.

“But, I have met a lot of people that live in high rises and people like Sandra take a lot of pride. It shows that they can be really nice places to live.”