The main complaint made at the Housing Forum conference last Thursday was that the figures did not take into account regional variations. Alfred McAlpine Homes managing director Graham McCullum said: "There is not a lot of point in knowing that Crest got three stars in all categories if you want to build a home in Cumbria, because it does not build in Cumbria.
"Consumers want to be able to see how a company is rated and then go and see their product."
McCullum said the survey should be broken down into regions, and would also benefit from a larger sample, which would result in fewer statistical errors.
He said: "The surveys were carried out during the summer holidays, and Mori had to call some respondents 15 or 20 times before they found them in. I suggested to Mori that if the survey was done at a different time next year, the same number of calls could yield more respondents."
The forum, which commissioned the survey from Mori, has said it was open to suggestions as to how the next survey would be carried out.
