Agenda item

Michelle Hoyles, Business Manager, Corporate Policy:

a.    reported on performance against the National Regulator of Social Housing’s Tenant Satisfaction Measures (TSM’s) for the year 2023/24, in order to propose key areas of focus for the Directorate of Housing and Investment (DHI) over the coming year to further improve tenant satisfaction based on these key findings

b.    confirmed that following consultation with Lincoln Tenant’s Panel it had no comments on the content of the report

c.     advised that the national Regulator of Social Housing’s Tenant Satisfaction Measures (TSMs) came into force in April 2023, as part of the Social Housing Regulation Act, in April 2024 these were incorporated into the Regulator’s Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard, with some minor changes made

d.    highlighted the purpose of TSM’s to ensure openness and transparency among social housing providers; specifically, how they treated tenants with fairness and respect so they could access services, raise complaints, influence decision making and hold their landlord to account

e.    added that landlords were also required to understand the diverse needs of their tenants; engage with them, take their views into account when making decisions; communicate with their tenants, provide information; and encourage effective scrutiny

f.      explained that the TSM’s were in two parts:

7. referred to Appendix A of the report which contained performance data for the Council’s TSM’s, the services of Acuity Research and Practice were procured to undertake the tenant perception survey element on its behalf

8. further outlined the background to the Tenant Satisfaction Measures Annual Report 2023/24, covering the following areas:

Ø  Tenant Perception Measures

Ø  Management Information Measures

8. • Other Findings
   • Conclusion - Key Drivers of Tenant Satisfaction
9. referred to three additional questions the Council chose to ask tenants as detailed within section 7 of the report and key areas of focus for the coming year following Acuity’s analysis and findings as detailed within section 8 of the officer’s report

10. invited members comments and review of the content of the report, following a short video briefing on the key findings of the tenant perception survey conducted by Acuity Research and Practice.

Denise Raine, representing Acuity Research and Practice gave a short power point representation on the key findings of the tenant perception survey, covering the following main subject areas:

·       2023/24 TSM Survey

Ø  Aims

Ø  What we Did

Ø  Going Forward

·       Last Year’s Results- National Context

Ø  Overall Tenant Satisfaction – 71%

·       Keeping Properties in Good Repair

·       Responsible Neighbourhood Management

·       Respectful and Helpful Engagement

·       Net Promoter Question

Ø  How Likely to Recommend Services to Others

·       Cost of Living

·       Key Driver Analysis

·       Benchmarking - Acuity Clients

·       Summary

·       Remedies and Next Steps

Members discussed the content of the report and key findings from the tenant perception survey in further detail.

Daren Turner, Director of Housing and Investment noted that in terms of performance the Council’s performance against all tenant perception measures was in the top quartile nationally. We were ranked in Quartile1/2 in comparison to other local authorities in most areas, which was in the top 50%. Learning from the key findings, the Directorate needed to focus on tenants’ perception of anti-social behaviour/repairs/keeping tenants informed moving forward.

Members commented that it appeared only 7% of tenants in low cost rented accommodation were contacted.

Officers/Denise Raine, representing Acuity Research and Practice offered feedback as follows:

·       All of our stock was low cost rented accommodation.

·       A sample of tenants were questioned.

·       We must follow the regulated guidance of what to sample.

·       Our sample matched that of all other Councils.

Daren Turner, Director of Housing and Investment advised that the findings from the perception survey allowed us to drill down information on what was causing the outcomes and how different age groups responded. For instance, some tenants may not have realised that we operated a scheduled repairs system and that may have affected the results.

The question on anti-social behaviour needed to be less generic and less about the content of the local media. We should ask tenants how they had been affected by anti-social behaviour and the methods they had used to report issues, in order to achieve more meaningful responses and inform future outcomes. We could ask those tenants who felt we didn’t perform well in this area why this was so.

RESOLVED that:

1.    The content of the report and the Tenant Satisfaction Measures data contained within be noted.

2.    Housing Scrutiny Sub-Committee’s support of the priorities listed in section 7 of the report be noted.

3.    The submission of the TSM data to the National Regulator for Social Housing contained within Appendix A of the report be noted.