The majority of the public believes housing safety inspections should be in the hands of local councils, survey reveals.

A survey for the Association for Public Service Excellence (APSE) found 59% of the public support council Building Inspections, and just 23.4% support private inspectors.

The poll, which was carried out by market research agency Survation for APSE, was a ‘wake up call to Government’, APSE chief executive Paul O’Brien, told a housing fringe at the Labour Party conference.

‘The public clearly support a role for local councils in keeping residents safe,’ he said.

‘With the majority of Inspections carried out by private companies it is time to look again at the fragmented housing market and redefine the role of local councils in ensuring the safety of their communities.’

The survey, which had a sample size of 1,634 people, revealed support to be highest amongst Conservative voters with 63.9% supporting councils as the Building Inspectors.

The results of the poll revealed there was a strong appetite for local authorities to have more powers when it comes to housing issues.

Over 82% of respondents supported, or supported strongly, the idea of giving councils stronger powers to call landlords to account, and over 83% of those asked wanted to see stronger interventions.