Read our 2023/24 Tenant Satisfaction Measures results

Published: 25 June 2024

The 2023/24 Tenant Satisfaction Measures (TSMs) results are now available, showing how we are performing against 22 measures created by Regulator of Social Housing, the organisation that oversees housing associations in the UK.

Who did we survey?

We use independent research organisation, IFF Research, to collect your feedback throughout the year. They did 599 telephone surveys with customers between May 2023 and March 2024, making sure that we spoke to a range of different customers in different types of home.

The results below come from customers who rent homes from us – i.e. most of our customers. In line with Regulator guidance, we only need to report data from these customers.

The results

The TSMs are divided into two types:

1. Questions we asked you, our customers

There are 12 of these TSMs. They cover a range of subjects such as repairs, complaints, being listened to and our approach to community safety.

2. Information that we collect

The other 10 measures are reported directly by us, from information we collect throughout the year. These are things like number of complaints, number of anti-social behaviour reports, how long we take to complete repairs, and how we complete essential health and safety checks.

Median means the middle score in a list of scores of other housing association's performance. It gives you a better idea of how we are performing than the average, which might be affected by very low or very high scores.  

Top takeaways

1. We’re performing better than most housing associations in 11 out of 12 of the TSMs we ask you about.
2. The only area where we don’t perform better than most housing associations is ‘time taken to complete repair’. We’re working on ways to improve the quality and efficiency of our repairs service, and you can read more about what we’re doing below.
3. Our top score is for ‘home is safe’ with 86% of customers saying they feel safe in their homes. While we matched our performance from last year, we have work to do to hit our own target of 90%.
4. Our lowest score is for ‘approach to complaints handling’, with 55% of customers we spoke to saying they were satisfied with how their complaints were handled. While this score might seem low, this result is in the top 25% for housing associations we are compared with, and 6% better than last year’s score.
5. We received 38% more complaints than last year. This might sound bad, but it is seen by the Regulator as a sign of an easy-to-access complaints process.
6. We have more stage one complaints and less stage two complaints compared to other housing associations. This suggests we are good at resolving complaints at stage one, without customers having to go to stage two.
7. We get a lot more ASB cases than other local housing associations. While this might seem bad, it shows that customers feel confident reporting ASB to us.

What we’re doing

Here are some things that what we’re doing already because of our TSM results, with a focus on better communication and satisfaction with our repairs and maintenance service.

• A text messaging service is now in place to confirm repair and maintenance appointments.
• We’ve improved how Avela Home Service repair jobs are scheduled, to make the best use of time, meaning we can get to your jobs quicker and more efficiently.
• We are working with Avela Home Service to improve the way we communicate with customers when planned maintenance work, such as kitchen or bathroom replacement, is due.

Shared ownership customers

We also surveyed 12 of our 41 shared ownership customers, to let them have their say on our service. Satisfaction is much lower amongst these customers, with just six of the 12 customers saying they were satisfied overall with SLH.

We are aware of the causes of dissatisfaction in this area, and we have plans in place to improve communication and provide a better-quality service. These include fixing defects, providing a dedicated officer to support shared ownership customers, and involving home ownership customers when looking for cleaning and grounds maintenance services.

What happens next

Our TSM results were discussed with the SLH board on 20 June and our results and response will be sent to the Regulator before the deadline of 30 June 2024.

Find out more

Learn more about how we measure our performance