Annual Tenant Satisfaction Measures Survey

Contents

1. Overview
2. Services overall
3. The home
4. Repairs
5. Communication
6. Neighbourhood
7. Complaints
8. Management information

Overview

In 2023, the Regulator of Social Housing introduced a set of performance measures to find out how our tenants feel about a range of categories.

Some of these measures are collected from the annual tenant satisfaction survey, and some from mangement information.

Tenant satisfaction survey

Thank you to everyone who took part in our tenant satisfaction survey 2024. This was carried out between June and August 2024.

The survey and report was delivered by ARP Research.

Overall, 1051 tenant households took part in the survey.

The survey allowed tenants to have their say about:

• the standard of their home
• the services they receive
• how our services can be improved in the future

We recognise the importance of listening to tenant feedback about their expectations and experiences of using our services and are committed to using the results of the annual survey to improve services.

Comparing results

This is the second year of the Regulator of Social Housing's tenant satisfaction measures (TSMs), that all social landlords must report annually. 

We carried out a similar survey in previous years to help us understand customer satisfaction, although this was not required by the Regulator of Social Housing.

Services overall

This result is a fall compared to our 2022 survey result of 78% satisfaction, but is still close to ARP's benchmark of 71%.

This fall is consistent with trends across the housing sector, which is believed to be impacted by the pandemic, cost of living crisis, rent increases and shortages in labour and materials.

We've analysed the data to understand the strongest factors most closely associated with overall tenant satisfaction, with the top 4 listed below:

• Listens to and acts on tenants' views (56%)
• Provide a home that is well maintained (67%)
• Treated fairly and with respect (69%)
• Repairs service in the last 12 months (71%)

We saw that overall satisfaction varied across different types of customer:

• Most satisfaction measures have fallen for the 35-49 age group
• Retirement age tenants give the highest ratings
• New tenants are significantly more satisfied than average
• There has been a notable fall in satisfaction in Hebburn

We'll be looking at these differences in more detail to understand why customers have different experiences with us, and how we can make their experiences more consistent.

The home

Those who didn't find their home to be safe mentioned damp, mould or general maintenance issues.

This is a new question, so cannot be compared to our 2022 tenant survey, but overall these scores are in line with ARP's other tenant surveys.

Repairs

The repairs experience is not always consistent for customers. On the whole, most customers have a good repairs experience.

These results are above average compared with ARP's other tenant surveys.

Communication

We want you to be satisfied with how we act upon the feedback that you give us. We're looking at ways to better communicate with customers, and ensure that we keep you updated with progress when you make a report and about the things that matter to you.

Neighbourhood

Both ratings have fallen largely in West Shields, Riverside, and East Shields and Whitburn when compared with the 2022 survey.

Satisfaction with the approach to handling antisocial behaviour has fallen, yet still matches the benchmark.

We want to make sure that all customers are happy with how handle their ASB case, maintain communal areas, and contribute positively towards their neighbourhood. We're already putting plans in place to make improvements in these areas.

Complaints

From past experience with the question, it's important to note that tenants who claim to have complained may not have used the formal complaint system. 

This score better represents tenants who had some sort of issue or problem over the last 12 months that they believe we needed to solve.

The wording of this question was different to previous years and so cannot be compared, but it is slightly lower than the 33% average satisfaction of ARP's other tenant surveys.

We want each and every tenant to be happy with how we handle their complaint, and assure them that we are learning from their feedback, so we're looking to improve how we communicate service improvements to you.

Management information