The first year of tenant satisfaction measures: the results
The government overhauled consumer regulation following the Grenfell Tower fire. Now, an Inside Housing survey of more than 200 councils and housing associations reveals the first results from the Regulator of Social Housing’s new tenant satisfaction measures regime. Grainne Cuffe investigates. Illustration by Andrea Chronopoulos
When the government overhauled consumer regulation last year, it compelled councils and housing associations to ask standardised sets of questions of tenants to help it “understand how well landlords are doing”. Now the results are in.
Over the past few months, Inside Housing has gathered data from more than 200 housing associations and councils to identify early learning from the tenant satisfaction measures (TSMs) regime.
We have also been asking landlords how they collected the data. This is because a range of different survey methods have been used, including phone, email, postal, online and in-person surveys. Researchers have consistently said that different collection methods – the regulator did not specify which methods should be used – have the potential to significantly impact the final scores. For this reason, anyone expecting Inside Housing to tabulate the TSM scores from highest to lowest will be disappointed – this is not a sensible approach with such a variance in collection methods.
We will, however, be publishing a table of the 50 largest landlords sorted by number of homes and a full list of 203 housing associations and councils online, to enable housing professionals to quickly scan their peer group and help to understand the emerging picture in the sector. This, after all, is the information the government will be using to scrutinise performance.
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Given that there are 22 TSMs in total – 12 collected through tenant perception surveys and 10 through landlord data – this first piece of detailed research will focus on just three key findings: the TSMs relating to satisfaction with overall services, repairs and complaint-handling. We will publish pieces looking at the remaining areas in the coming weeks. Given their potential importance, this piece will also reveal the range of approaches to data collection landlords have been taking in order to gain a more detailed understanding of this important area.
Trends
So, what are the initial findings and what picture begins to emerge as a result? Let’s start with the basics. Councils and housing associations began collecting the data for TSMs in April last year for 2023-24. Those with more than 1,000 homes had until June 2024 to submit the data to the regulator.
Inside Housing’s sample of 203 landlords follows an initial survey of 200 social landlords that we carried out last year, which was focused on their early approach to data collection (we have added Birmingham, Southwark and Croydon councils to the mix, but otherwise we have focused on the same landlords that responded last year).
We will start our analysis with collection methods, given the extent to which they could potentially impact the overall results. What is the story? For starters, many landlords changed their collection methods over the course of the 2023-24 period (from the methods they declared at the time of Inside Housing’s 2023 survey). So, by the time the results were submitted to the regulator, 39 landlords (one in five of our initial sample) were using a different blend of collection methods to those they were using at the outset.
The most significant change was that 17 landlords added or increased their use of phone surveys, compared to their approach 12 months previously. Most changes involved reducing the use of text, online, post and in-person surveys. Several switched from mixed collection methods to just phone. This does not necessarily suggest landlords are gaming the system – researchers have consistently indicated that a blended approach is sensible, and landlords may well be tightening their approaches based on emerging learning. But it is something that is important for the regulator to understand and talk openly about as the TSMs regime moves forward.
Jonathan Cox, chief data officer at Housemark, points out that “online surveys are typically 15 percentage points below the telephone average”, for example.
So, what does the overall blend of collection methods look like? Well, 184 out of 203 landlords surveyed tenants via the phone; 141 surveyed via email, text and online; 30 used in-person surveys; and 50 sent surveys via the post.
Only three landlords relied solely on online surveys to collect data (again, this is a method with a potentially strong negative bias).
Were there any differences between the collection methods used by councils and housing associations? There have been concerns that cash-strapped councils may, for example, be more reliant on online collection methods, which are potentially cheaper and less time-consuming.
Here is what our results told us. For the 89 councils that responded, 83% used phone; 72% used email, text and online; 15% surveyed in person; and 36% sent surveys via post. Nearly a third of councils surveyed used the phone method alone.
For 114 housing associations, 96% used phone surveys; 68% used email, text and online; 16% used post; and 15% surveyed in person. Nearly two fifths (44/ 39%) - surveyed using phone alone.
Mr Cox says the regulatory framework allows for a range of collection methods, “but the most popular method over the past year has been telephone survey”.
Tenant satisfaction results
Source: Inside Housing
Note: Satisfaction scores rounded
“This method has a number of advantages – it typically delivers more positive results than online surveys, is cheaper than face-to-face surveys and allows the landlord to proactively ensure they achieve the minimum sample and representativeness.”
However, he says “many landlords are increasingly adopting a mix of collection methods, to ensure they are tailoring their approach to resident communication preferences and maximising their sample”. There is no right or wrong approach, but it is important for landlords to understand that different collection methods carry different survey biases, he says.
Bearing the context relating to collection methods firmly in mind, what is the initial picture relating to the satisfaction with overall housing services? There are some patterns that suggest commonalities in areas other than collection methods.
Our data showed that the average satisfaction for overall services was 69.4% across the 203 landlords. For the 89 councils, it was 67.6%, and for the 114 housing associations it was 70.9%. Top performers in the sector were arm’s-length management organisations (ALMOs) (see table, right) – the nine included in our survey (out of 18 operating in the sector) received an average overall satisfaction score of 74%. Of those, nearly half surveyed via phone only, with the rest mixing their methods. In terms of the top three scores we have data for, Stockport Homes mixed in-person, phone and online, Derby Homes surveyed via phone, and Blackpool used post and email initially, then a request could be made for in-person or phone.
Comparatively, overall satisfaction with the NHS is 24%, according to The King’s Fund.
The overall top score from our 203 was ALMO Stockport Homes, which received 91%. It pulled together tenant opinion via a blend of in-person, phone and online surveys.
Of the landlords that received the top 10 scores for overall satisfaction, two were ALMOs. The rest were housing associations. They range from 47,000-home Bromford to 520-home Pine Court. Geographically, their headquarters are mainly in the North of England or the Midlands, and include Stockport, Birmingham, Liverpool, Sefton, Derby, Northallerton (North Yorkshire), Tewkesbury, Plymouth and Witney. One was London-based: Poplar HARCA.
The top two scorers used mixed methods to survey – Stockport Homes with in-person, email and phone, and Pine Court with email, text and in-person (38%) – while 40% used phone alone to survey, five used mixed methods, and one used just in-person (Bromford).
Poplar HARCA surveyed via email (65%) and phone, text or in-person (35%).
Cottsway – whose 5,700 homes are based in West Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire, Wiltshire and Worcestershire – received the third-highest score for overall service (87%). Deputy chief executive Sue Lakin says the landlord has “always valued the importance of customer feedback and used independent market research agency Acuity to gather customer satisfaction for many years prior” to TSMs being introduced.
She continues: “The questions we previously asked customers were very closely aligned to what we are now required to gather, so we were in a good position, and by carrying out telephone surveys quarterly, we are able to closely monitor our performance and respond to any changes in results.”
Again, with a cautionary nod to collection methods, the landlords with the 10 lowest scores for overall satisfaction included seven councils – four of them London boroughs – and three housing associations. Scores ranged from 44.4% (GreenSquareAccord) to Birmingham Council at 51.4%. Various survey collection methods were used. None used online surveys only, but the two with lowest scores had a higher blend of online. However, three of the councils that used online did not provide a breakdown. One of the main things a number of those with lower scores have in common is recent regulatory intervention, along with being based in large urban areas, particularly London.
Collection methods
GreenSquareAccord, Birmingham, Lambeth, Haringey, and Hammersmith and Fulham have all been the subject of special investigations by the Housing Ombudsman, while the regulator recently handed London-based housing association Octavia a C3 consumer grade. It also has G3 and V3 grades.
Birmingham Council issued a Section 114 notice last year, effectively declaring bankruptcy, and is making significant cuts to housing services.
Haringey Council received a satisfaction score of 50% for overall repairs service, 47% for overall satisfaction, and 17% for complaint-handling, the latter two of which were the lowest in London.
A spokesperson says the work to improve services “has already started, as can be seen in the 2023-24 TSMs survey, with significant improvements to tenant perception across half of the… indicators”.
“We, however, recognise we have more work to do to improve the overall tenant satisfaction with housing services, including repairs and complaint-handling.
“We have recently agreed a new repairs policy, which is a major step in transforming our landlord services, setting clear standards for repairs and maintenance. This policy includes a new ‘urgent’ repairs category to help speed up the response times and has been co-produced with residents,” they say.
Mr Cox at Housemark tells Inside Housing: “Residents in densely populated urban areas are typically significantly less satisfied than those in more rural settings. The average for London is typically 15 percentage points lower, and a similar effect can be seen in other major cities. This is due to a range of factors, including deprivation, stock profile, stock quality and overcrowding.”
Repairs
Average overall satisfaction with the repairs service was 71.2%: 72.7% for housing associations, 70.2% for councils and 74.4% for ALMOs.
Broadacres, a housing association which manages 6,000 homes across North Yorkshire, received a satisfaction score of 90% for its repairs service, the second-highest in our data, and 86% for overall service.
The landlord surveyed residents via phone (80%) and via email/text (20%). Chief executive Gail Teasdale tells Inside Housing its scores “reflect the journey we have been on to put the experience of customers at the heart of everything we do”. She says this means, on repairs, for example, having most services delivered by colleagues, giving customers the ability to feed back quickly on their repair experience, and receive a same-day call-back where there are any issues.
A2Dominion, which was among the lower results for repairs service satisfaction, has managed to increase its score by nearly 10 percentage points since publishing its TSMs, from 57.2% to 66.6%.
In numbers
184
Landlords that surveyed tenants via phone (out of 203)
136
Landlords that surveyed via email, text and online
53
Landlords that sent surveys via the post
Jo Evans, director of repairs and maintenance at A2Dominion, says: “Since January, we have appointed a new property leadership team, launched a live tracking service for customers to see the progress of their repair and communicate with their operative directly, and improved van stocks to improve first-time fixes.”
Overall satisfaction with complaint-handling scores was low when compared to other TSMs – an average score of 33.9%: 31% for councils, 40% for ALMOs and 36% for housing associations.
Richard Blakeway, housing ombudsman, tells Inside Housing that this should be a “wake-up call” to landlords “that they need to re-imagine the role of complaints within their organisations”.
He adds: “Too often complaints teams are let down by poor records and information, as well as a lack of responsiveness from other service areas. Complaints teams need to have a direct route to the governing body of a landlord to effect change, otherwise they will always be firefighting rather than proactive and preventative.”
In terms of local authorities, the top three scorers for complaint-handling were ALMOs: Stockport Homes (61.5%), Blackpool Coastal Housing (54.9%) and Derby Homes (51.2%).
Tenant satisfaction scores from the ALMOs that took part in Inside Housing’s survey
Source: Inside Housing
Notes: Satisfaction scores rounded; These are the ALMOs that took part in our collection method survey, but are representative of ALMO scores overall; *Lewisham Homes went back under direct control of the council in mid 2023-24
For housing associations, the top scorers for complaint-handling were Poplar HARCA (69.6%), Pine Court (62.5%) and South Liverpool Homes (55.0%).
Wandle received the lowest score for complaint-handling at 12.6%, followed by Haringey (17%) and Brent (17.5%) councils. Haringey used phone and email, Brent in person and phone, and Wandle phone primarily, but if a resident requested the survey by email or text, it obliged.
A spokesperson for Wandle said its complaint-handling has not been “good enough”.
“We are disappointed that our residents have not been able to rely on these services in the way that they should, and we are committed to putting this right,” the spokesperson says, adding that it has established a project group to address causes of poor performance.
Housemark’s Mr Cox says that many landlords with lower scores are naturally “concerned”. He adds: “The important thing is for landlords to focus less on their rank, and more on understanding what is driving their scores. Awareness of the impact of context and methodology helps move the conversation on to what really matters: what you need to do to improve.”
Landlord responses
GreenSquareAccord
Ruth Cooke, chief executive of GreenSquareAccord, said: “Getting things right for our customers is our top priority and it is clear from the TSM perception survey that many of our customers don’t yet feel we are delivering on this commitment.
“However, the results are not a surprise; we had been aware for some time that we needed to significantly improve services for customers and have been working to deliver the changes needed. The TSMs have been a great opportunity to hear from customers about where we need to continue to focus and to ensure our plans are addressing what matters to them.
“The issues we faced in the aftermath of our merger were significant and well-documented, leading to a subsequent regulatory downgrade.
“We acknowledge the long-term impact this has had on our customers, and after coming through this extremely challenging period, we have recognised the need to refocus our priorities to provide a better experience for our customers. We refreshed our business strategy in April 2023 to focus our investment on our core purpose as a social landlord and enable us to make transformational improvements to our customer offer over the next five years.
“We have already made significant improvements in the areas of performance our customers have told us matter most.
“Our latest transactional survey data, based on feedback from thousands of customers taken directly after they have received a service from us, shows that the changes we have already made have started to have a positive impact, with overall customer satisfaction at 85% and satisfaction with repairs at 90%.
“Two areas we knew required change were our repairs service and our handling of complaints. We have driven significant improvements in our repairs performance in the last 18 months – including clearing a backlog of work, reducing the number of days it takes us to complete a repair and substantially improving the rate at which we complete repairs right first time.
“We have also introduced a much more robust complaints-handling process and improved the ways we learn from complaints and share lessons with colleagues to avoid future cases; making this a fundamental part of the way we work. It was good to see the recent comments from the Housing Ombudsman which recognised the progress we have made in how we handle complaints and in improving our customer services.
“While we have already made significant changes which will improve the experience our customers receive, we know there is much more to do. We recognise and accept it will take more than one good experience to rebuild trust and improve how our customers feel about us.
“We have always seen the TSMs first and foremost as an opportunity to get an honest picture of how our customers perceive us so that we can learn, respond and improve.
“We are committed to using the intelligence from the results as a springboard for more localised, focused and honest conversations with our customers and have started these with a series of roadshows held over the summer and workshops with our customer panel.
“We know that we are far from being the finished article and since we received our results, we have used the feedback to further engage with our customers about specific areas of dissatisfaction and to use this to work with our colleagues and build on what we are already doing to improve our customer offer.”
A2Dominion
Jo Evans, director of repairs and maintenance at A2Dominion, said: “We’ve already seen an increase in satisfaction with our repairs service since our tenant satisfaction measure results were published, from 57.2% to 66.6% since April 2024.
“Since January, we have appointed a new property leadership team, launched a live tracking service for customers to see the progress of their repair and communicate with their operative directly and improved van stocks to improve first time fixes.
“We still have a lot to do to continue to improve services and we will continue to keep our customers updated on the changes that we are undertaking.”
Clarion
A Clarion spokesperson said: “At Clarion, we are committed to monitoring our performance, holding ourselves accountable and being transparent to achieve continuous improvement and a consistent positive experience for all our residents.
“We have identified complaint-handling as a key improvement area and have prioritised this as part of our major transformation programme, Connect – which we embarked upon in recognition of our changing operating environment and the mounting pressures we face.
“It will take some time to embed new ways of working and see these reflected in the tenant satisfaction measures perception survey scores.
“However, we are already seeing the benefits of some of our changes to complaint-handling reflected in our monthly, independently measured customer satisfaction surveys.
“These surveys are the result of a recent direct interaction a resident has had with us.”
Octavia
A spokesperson for Octavia said: “Our absolute priority is to ensure all our homes are safe, well maintained and enable residents to live supported and well in their communities.
“We recognise that our first tenant satisfaction measures feedback under the new regulatory system is disappointing. It falls below the level of customer experience we want to provide, and our residents deserve.
“We are listening to our residents and responding to their concerns, and we are making changes to the way we do things to improve our service in a number of areas, so that residents will experience a much higher level of satisfaction going forward.”
Magna
Selina White, chief executive of Magna, said: “While there are several positives in our TSM scores for 2023-24, they also highlight areas we have identified we need to improve for our customers. This includes how we handle complaints and the causes of them.
“In recent months, we have reviewed our complaints process against the Housing Ombudsman’s new Complaint Handling Code and made some changes in line with it. We have increased the size of our complaints team and recruited a dedicated complaints resolution lead.
“In addition, all team members have undertaken refresher courses for our own complaint-handling, together with training on the Housing Ombudsman’s code and related processes. We take customers’ complaints very seriously and are committed to learning from them to continue to improve our services.”
Wandle
A Wandle spokesperson said: “We recognise that our complaint-handling, and aspects of our repairs service, haven’t been good enough. We are disappointed that our residents have not been able to rely on these services in the way that they should, and we are committed to putting this right.
“We have already established a project group to look at and address causes of poor performance in complaint-handling; and introduced new ways of working in our repairs service, with more changes planned.
“We value all feedback from our residents and want to continue to learn and improve. We are committed to embedding recent changes and improvements, and delivering consistently good outcomes for residents.”
Haringey Council
A Haringey Council spokesperson said: “We know there is more to do to boost tenant satisfaction, and we are determined to continue improving our services, as well as involving residents in all the key decisions we make.
“The hard work has already started, as can be seen in the 2023-24 TSMs survey, with significant improvements to tenant perception across half of the TSM indicators.
“The TSMs which have seen the most marked improvement since 2022 include satisfaction that the council makes a positive contribution to the neighbourhood; being kept informed; being treated fairly and with respect; handling ASB; safety of the home; and satisfaction with listening to views and acting upon them.
“Resident satisfaction in our transactional customer satisfaction surveys, carried out immediately after a tenant has had a recent repair undertaken, was 90.6% in August 2024.
“We, however, recognise we have more work to do to improve the overall tenant satisfaction with housing services, including repairs and complaint-handling.
“We have recently agreed a new repairs policy, which is a major step in transforming our landlord services, setting clear standards for repairs and maintenance.
“This policy includes a new ‘urgent’ repairs category to help speed up the response times and has been co-produced with residents.”
Lambeth Council
A spokesperson for Lambeth Council said: “We have been working hard to make improvements across all areas of our work, to deliver the best possible service to our tenants. We’re committed to working alongside our tenants, and listening to their views, in order to continue these improvements.”
Birmingham Council
Birmingham Council referred Inside Housing to its website, where it sets out its plans for improvement.
Broadacres
Gail Teasdale, chief executive of Broadacres, said: “We are delighted to have been ranked so highly in these key satisfaction measures.
“This reflects the journey we have been on as an organisation to put the experience of customers at the heart of everything we do. This takes many forms.
“On repairs having most services delivered by colleagues and giving customers the ability to feedback quickly on their repair experience, and receive a same-day call-back where there are any issues.
“On housing services colleagues who are empowered to give individualised experiences. On complaints, we actively embrace them and look to learn lessons from everyone. This active listening means we have very high levels of customer engagement. The key ingredient is our colleagues who are passionate about delivering for our customers.”
Cottsway
Sue Lakin, deputy chief executive at Cottsway and lead for operations, said: “We’ve always valued the importance of customer feedback and have already used independent market research agency Acuity to gather customer satisfaction for many years prior to tenant satisfaction measures being introduced.
“The questions we previously asked customers were very closely aligned to what we are now required to gather, so we were in a good position, and by carrying out telephone surveys quarterly, we are able to closely monitor our performance and respond to any changes in results.
“We want to deliver excellent services for our customers, so we set our standards high, and this is only achievable because we have such a great team of staff working together to make this happen.
“While we still await official publication of TSMs by the regulator, our first annual submission shows an increase in satisfaction across most areas, exceeding our own targets for the year.
“However, we will never be complacent. Sometimes we do get things wrong and we never shy away from this. We take steps to make things right and we continue to monitor our performance regularly.
“This is done not only through TSMs, but with other rigorous key performance and value for money indicators, as we want to continue improving and delivering quality services and have high satisfaction among our customers.”
Poplar HARCA
A spokesperson for Poplar HARCA said: “In our experience, the more you listen to and act on what your residents tell you, the higher their satisfaction.”
Stockport Homes
A spokesperson for Stockport Homes said: “Stockport Homes (SHG) strives for excellence in all service provision and has always maintained a high-performance culture.
“Historically and prior to the introduction of tenant satisfaction measures, SHG has always collected and analysed customer feedback and complaints data and used this insight to inform service delivery.
“SHG has also always encouraged feedback from customers, from customer roadshows to more targeted customer engagement activities in specific localities, using dissatisfaction data to focus interventions.
“SHG’s customer charter tells customers what they should expect from SHG and through training and an embedded set of organisational values, SHG continually instil this customer excellence culture with staff.”
Recent longform articles by Grainne Cuffe
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