Tenant satisfaction measures consultation

The Regulator of Social Housing is currently consulting on a new set of tenant satisfaction measures, as proposed in the government’s Social Housing White Paper. The consultation is open until 3 March 2022, and will seek views on 22 measures across five themes from the white paper.

Background

The Social Housing White Paper, published in November 2020, outlines what social housing residents should expect from their landlords. It seeks to rebalance the relationship between residents and landlords, and enable residents to hold their landlord to account and understand how they are performing.

The proposed tenant satisfaction measures are among the tools that could be used to do this. They are intended to provide a set of clear, comparable metrics on issues that matter to residents, and would be applied to housing associations, local authorities and other registered housing providers.

The measures would enable residents to hold their landlords to account, and allow the regulator to ensure that housing associations (and other social housing providers) are delivering on consumer regulation. They would be used alongside other tools to gain assurance from social housing providers on compliance.

About the consultation

The regulator is seeking views on its proposed 22 tenant satisfaction measures across the five themes from the white paper:

• Keeping properties in good repair.
• Maintaining building safety.
• Effective complaints handling.
• Respectful and helpful tenant management.
• Responsible neighbourhood management.

Twelve of these will be measured using a perception survey, while the remaining 10 will be measured using housing providers’ management information. This could include complaints handling, building safety, neighbourhood management, repairs and stock quality information.

The consultation is also proposing a new Tenant Satisfaction Measure standard. To comply with this, housing associations will need to meet detailed technical and tenant perception survey requirements.

The consultation opened on 9 December 2021 and will close on 3 March 2022. We were involved in shaping the proposed measures through the Tenant Satisfaction Measure Sounding Board, convened by the regulator to provide input into the development of the measures ahead of consultation – rather than to formally sign off or endorse the proposals.  

Share your views

There is a lot of detail to work through in the consultation, and we are keen to hear your views, concerns and suggestions. We will ensure there are opportunities to share your views through a range of channels, including our webinar on 10 February.

The Regulator of Social Housing will also be engaging with the following member groups on the consultation:

• London Executive Forum – 22 January.
• Smaller Housing Association Network – 20 January. 
• BME National Network – 8 February.

We will be submitting a response on behalf of the sector in early March.