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. 

Services overall

The main impression given by the 2024 / 25 survey results is that customer satisfaction has stabilised since the previous year's.

An example of this is the overall satisfaction score where there has been a small decrease from 68% to 65%.

We asked our satisfied customers what we've done well, and they highlighted:

• Quick response to repairs
• Employees showing respect
• Competency of Repairs Operatives

Customers who were dissatisfied said that the main reasons were:

• Communication around outstanding repairs and timescales
• Damp, mould and condensation
• Anti-social behaviour

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

We want everyone to feel safe in their home. Satisfaction with how well the home is maintained is essentially unchanged since last year (67%) and is still one of the strongest key drivers. On the other end of the scale, around a fifth of tenants are actively dissatisfied (21%).

The maintenance of the home is the second strongest key driver of overall satisfaction. All three scores in this section are unchanged since last year.

Tenants that are unhappy with the safety of their home tended to mention damp and mould or speed of repairs.

Repairs

The repairs experience is not always consistent for customers. On the whole, most customers have a good repairs experience with both satisfaction scores are on par with the national average.

The performance of the repairs service that tenants receive is generally consistent across the last three surveys, which means that 71% of tenants that received a repair last year have a positive perception of the service, compared to 19% that are dissatisfied.

Satisfaction with recent repairs received is still a key driver of overall perception, although not as strong as last year. Repairs satisfaction has improved by 8% in East Shields and Whitburn.

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.

Listening to tenants views is again the top key driver of satisfaction overall. For the second year running, whether tenants feel that South Tyneside Council Housing Services listens to their views and acts upon them is the strongest key driver.

Neighbourhood

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

Neighbourhood satisfaction scores have now stabilised, after haven fallen substantially last year.

Satisfaction in Hebburn has fallen, whilst in West Shields it has improved. Customers answered that South Tyneside Council Housing Services makes a positive contribution to the neighbourhood (54% satisfied) and the approach to anti-social behaviour (49% satisfied).

Complaints

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.

Having slightly improved since last year, satisfaction now exactly matches the national benchmark median score.

Since last year, the proportion of tenants that have raised such an issue with the South Tyneside Council Housing Services has remained effecitvely unchanged at 26%, which is identical to the average results. Complaints are both more likely, and handled less satisfactorily, for tenants aged under 50.

Management information

The information below is from 2023 / 24. Our action plan and service improvements based on your feedback from 2024 / 25's survey will be available soon.