Most Wadworth hosts say rent is fair

http://www.morningadvertiser.co.uk/news.ma/ViewArticle?R=83257


To an extent I side with you emotively Martin but the observations being made are fair enough given the climate of suspicion that many tied licensees live under. My initial reaction was it's great to see evidence of a pubco doing a good job out there but the devil IS in the detail. And there's not a lot of detail and this survey does not provide CERTAIN evidence of 'most' lessees agreeing their rent is fair.

I've taken part in very detailed telephone surveys for my pubco which were conducted by independent researchers 'randomly selecting' lessees to find a representative sample. I've done this happily and given very frank responses throughout. An uncomfortable number of questions have been leading or, with multiple choice responses being the only way of answering, incapable of harvesting good quality information which could then be acted on by the freeholder. My clear impression is that such surveys lack in substance and are more about box ticking - 'dear shareholder in 2007 we surveyed a representative sample of our lessees and found that our standards of delivery meet their expectations. Thank you we are great’.

I've been surveyed like this twice and whenever a useless, or leading, question has come up I asked if the researcher had found people reluctant to answer, 'now you mention it yes, actually some say they can't answer that and some say they are not happy answering but it is all done completely anonymously’. I've even asked for my responses to be sent to the MD directly but that's been outside the remit of the surveying company.

Futhermore there’s NEVER been any feedback to lessees and never have I seen the company’s response to such surveys. On pointing this aspect out to the research company I once got a fairly in depth response from the surveying company but nothing from S&NPE. And when I’ve mentioned that I’ve done these surveys to BDMs they haven’t been aware of the survey taking place. But then that’s not Wadworth’s. And I'm not cynical.