Agenda item

The Director of Housing and Projects presented the report which gave further details from the presentation made at the last Committee meeting.  The Tenant Satisfaction Measures (TSM) Survey was a mandatory requirement placed on Social Landlords by the Regulator of Social Housing to comply with the Transparency, Influence an Accountability Standard of the Social Housing Regulation Act (2023).  The results of the survey were submitted to the Regulator who published them in an annual report which analysed the results for social landlords with 1,000 or more homes.    The Survey had been undertaken in two waves and had been carried out by Acuity on behalf of the Council.

The results for Wave 1 had been presented to the Committee in October and the report before Members included Wave 2 figures and the overall annual results. A total of 550 responses had been received across both waves of the survey plus a further 32 partially completed responses which the Council were also required to submit as part of its TSM submission.  There were 131 surveys completed online and 451 by telephone, giving a total of 582 which was enough to give a representative view from tenants across the Council’s housing stock.

There were 12 mandatory questions which ensured that results were consistent across all landlords to allow the Regulator to undertake benchmarking.

The survey results were presented at Table 1 of the report and showed a comparison between each of the two waves.  The table showed positive movement in 12 of the 15 areas surveyed.  The most significant reduction in results was the percentage of people satisfied that the Council keeps communal areas clean and maintained.   This had been referenced at the last Committee when it was noted that the Council had undertaken an exercise where tenants were required to remove personal items stored in the communal areas due to associated fire risks and it was felt that this may have impacted the score.

People who had completed the survey had indicated to Acuity that they were happy for their detailed results to be shared and this information had been sought from Acuity to allow detailed analysis to be carried out to see if the exercise undertaken earlier in the year had influenced the results.

Members were then referred to Table 2 of the report which showed comparisons between 2024/25 and 2025/26 and showed significant improvements in the results with the overall satisfaction with the Housing Service increasing by 8%.  Satisfaction with the Repairs Service had significantly increased which was a reflection of all the work that was being undertaken within the Service.  An example was given that the time taken for repairs to be completed had increased satisfaction by 18% and satisfaction with the overall Repairs Service had increased by 15%.

Further increase in satisfaction by tenants had been seen in how the Council communicated and engaged with tenants which had increased between 7%-11% which could be due to the increased level of engagement that the Council had with tenants over the last few months with five housing roadshows being held across the District.  Decarbonisation works had been undertaken with meetings being held between tenants and contractors so each was fully aware of the works to be completed and what this involved with tenants being able to contribute to these discussions.  Positive engagement with tenants had also been carried out where improvements were being discussed at sheltered housing schemes. 

Reference was made to the reduction in satisfaction with regard to Anti-Social Behaviour and complaints but it was noted that the number of complaints had significantly reduced and the quality and timeline of responses had improved. The Director of Housing and Projects indicated that this would be looked into with the detailed information given to Acuity and tenants would be contacted and sessions arranged to enable more information about issues to be understood.

The Director of Housing and Projects then referred to Appendix 1 of the report which included the information that would be provided to all tenants.  Acuity who carried out the survey provided a tenant-friendly report which would be published on the website with residents being made aware that the results were now available to view.

Members attention was drawn to paragraph 2.13 of the report which summarised the recommendations proposed by Acuity to support the continued improvement to satisfaction levels.   An action plan was provided at Appendix 2 which detailed the actions proposed by the Council and also any progress that had been made against any actions listed and the Director of Housing and Projects apologised for the late publication of Appendix 2.

Acuity also carried out benchmarking and a table was included in the report which compared the Council results for 2025/26 with those published by the Regulator for 2024/25.  The blue line in the table charted the Council’s performance against the upper quartile which was shown by the green line within the table.  The Regulator medium line was orange and the lower quartile was shown by a purple line.

Table 3 of the report showed the significant improvement shown by the Council within the benchmarking table, although it was noted that this was against benchmarking of social landlords for 2024/25.  The information for 2025/26 would be uploaded in June 2026 and the Regulator would publish reports for the whole sector and then benchmarking performance could be carried out for 2025/26 with other social landlords in the sector.   The Director of Housing and Projects stated that the performance shows the positive work that was being undertaken by the Housing Team and the improvement plans in place and the results were reflective of the progress and improvements made in the Housing Service.

Members congratulated Officers on the work done with comments being made in relation to the following:

• Communal areas – concern wasn’t in respect of cleanliness or tidiness but the use of the facilities by outside organisations who did not clean up after they had used the facilities – The Director of Housing and Projects indicated that she would follow this information up
• Reference to negative bias from those who have had to move personal belongings from communal areas
• Although movement in the service was going in the correct direction with repairs what was being done to further improve the service from good to stronger  - the overall satisfaction for all landlords was 74.9%  against the Council’s which was 68.9%.  The Director of Housing and Projects indicated that the recommendations proposed by Acuity would be implemented by the Council to improve tenants satisfaction.   Work would continue with contractors to improve the service offered in respect of repairs with appointments being given in advance and reminders being timelier.  The action plan would be put in place to help meet the expectations of tenants.

Members noted the report.