The current performance of housing providers in England against the new Tenant Satisfaction Measures has been revealed for the first time by Housemark.

Housemark has discovered:

  • Overall tenant satisfaction has decreased by around five percentage points since 2020 to 79% today. The picture for shared owners is even more stark with only 56% satisfied
  • Fewer than two-thirds of residents (64%) feel that their landlord listens to their views and is minded to act on them
  • Yet, 83% of tenants say their landlord treats them fairly and with respect; 75% say they are kept informed about the things that matter to them
  • Landlords are performing well on all safety measures, with a median score of 100% on all five areas
  • By contrast, only 83% of tenants say they are satisfied their home is safe
  • 85% of non-emergency repairs are completed on time against landlord targets, but the average days to complete repairs has increased by 40% to around 14 days since 2020
  • 8 in every 10 tenants say they are satisfied with repairs; 76% are satisfied with the time taken to complete the most recent repair
  • Only 68% of tenants say their landlord keeps communal areas clean and well-maintained

In addition, 8 in 10 tenants receive a response to a complaint within the 10 days required. Just over half of tenants (56%) say they are satisfied with their landlord’s approach to handling complaints.

Satisfaction with how their landlord handles anti-social behaviour is also low with a median score of just 60%.

Housing providers are required by the regulator to measure and report their performance against the 22 TSMs from 1 April. Registered Providers owning more than 1,000 shared ownership properties (around 50 landlords) must publish separate survey results for this group.

Jonathan Cox, Director of Data and Business Intelligence at Housemark, said: “We want to help housing providers get ready for significant regulation changes coming in from 1 April. As part of this, we have been working with our members to gather data against the 22 Tenant Satisfaction Measures since they were finalised in September. Although our data only gives an early indication of performance based on limited sample sizes, some striking trends are emerging that can inform landlord decision-making.

“There is clear potential for landlords to improve listening to and acting on tenant feedback, as well as how they engage with tenants. Changes here could help to address the decline in overall tenant satisfaction that our analysis highlights.”

Jonathan added: “It is not too late for housing providers to get ready for these regulation changes and ensure they are able to gather the required data in the right way from 1 April. This is something that Housemark has been supporting housing associations, local authorities and ALMOs to do across the country.”

Wherever possible, the Housemark data reflects tenant perceptions of their landlord’s service in line with the requirement set out by the Regulator of Social Housing for the TSMs.

The full survey findings are available here.