Tenants remain deeply unhappy with social landlords’ handling of complaints, according to the latest data from the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH).
In its analysis of large social landlords’ Tenant Satisfaction Measure (TSM) results, published today, the regulator reveals that only 36% are satisfied.
There’s better news for housing chiefs when it comes to overall service. The analysis shows that 71.8% of tenants in low cost rental accommodation (LCRA) are satisfied. That’s up slightly on the previous year’s figure of 71.3%.
However, 18% of tenants remain dissatisfied with their landlord. While an obvious minority in percentage terms, it still represents a sizeable portion of the overall tenant population.
In other findings:
- Tenants in LCRA report the highest levels of satisfaction with overall repairs services (74%), that their home is safe (78%), and that their landlord treats them with fairness and respect (78%)
- Shared owners remain less satisfied overall than other social housing tenants (48%)
- Most landlords report full compliance on each building safety measure according to management information. The vast majority of homes owned by large landlords had completed required gas (99.7%), fire (98.7%), asbestos (97.9%), water (97.9%), and lift safety checks (97.8%)
- 79% of the 11m non-emergency responsive repairs were completed within target timescales over the year.
Fiona MacGregor, chief executive at RSH, said: “The TSMs give useful insights for tenants and landlords, which should lead to better strategic decisions and stronger engagement with residents.
“TSM data provides an important source of intelligence for our regulation. Although we don’t look at them in isolation, it’s positive to see some early signs of improvement on last year.
“The TSMs are one part of our work to support transparency and accountability in the sector, and landlords should reflect on their results to see how they can make services to tenants better. We continue to use a range of tools, including our inspections, to drive landlords to improve social housing long-term.”
This marks the second year that the RSH has collected and published TSM data, with nearly half a million tenants surveyed by landlord’s for this 2024/25 analysis.
RSH says it is following up with landlords whose TSM results indicate they are “outliers” – including on health and safety indicators. The regulator is also engaging with landlords where it has concerns about the quality of their data.
Image credit: Monster Ztudio/Shutterstock
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