To advise Cabinet of the Council’s outturn performance against the Regulator of Social Housing’s Tenant Satisfaction Measures for 2024/25.

RESOLVED that Cabinet –

(a)    notes the Council’s Outturn Performance Report against the Tenant Satisfaction Measures, for publication on the Council’s website and submission to the Regulator of Social Housing by 30 June 2025; and

(b)    requests the Corporate Director (Operations and Delivery) to ensure that the Council’s Tenants Panel examines the data presented in this report and to develop an action plan for continuous improvement.

Cabinet considered a report of the Housing and Planning Portfolio Holder (A.4) which advised it of the Council’s outturn performance against the Regulator of Social Housing’s Tenant Satisfaction Measures for 2024/25.

Members were cognisant that Tenant Satisfaction Measures (TSMs) were metrics that all social housing landlords in England were required to collect and report on to the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH).

Cabinet was aware that the Social Housing (Regulation) Act 2023 had enacted a set of measures intended to improve standards for people living in social housing. It had set out a new regulatory framework for the consumer regulation of social housing to strengthen the accountability of landlords for providing safe homes, quality services and treating residents with respect. The introduction of TSMs had formed part of this framework.

Since 1 April 2023, all social housing providers had been required by the RSH to collect data to inform TSMs and those were aimed at helping improve standards for people living in social housing by:

• providing visibility by allowing tenants to see how well their landlord is doing and enabling tenants to hold their landlords to account;

• letting tenants see how well their landlord is performing in comparison with other landlords; and

• giving the RSH insight into which landlords might need to improve things for their tenants.

There were 22 TSMs and those were grouped into the following five themes:

• Keeping properties in good repair;

• Maintaining building safety;

• Respectful and helpful engagement;

• Complaints handling; and

• Neighbourhood management.

It was reported that ten of the TSMs were measured by landlords through their performance indicators and 12 were measured by an annual tenant perception survey. The RSH also set out its requirements (including mandatory questions and methodology) for data collection and reporting. Landlords with 1,000 or more homes were required to send their data to the RSH by 30 June 2025 and the data for all landlords would be published by RSH in Autumn 2025.

Cabinet was informed that this Council’s Outturn Performance Report against the TSMs had indicated a general improvement in performance and tenant satisfaction with the proportion of respondents who reported that they were satisfied with the overall service from their landlord increasing from 80.1% in 2023/24 to 81.3% in 2024/25.

Satisfaction with repairs, both overall satisfaction with repairs and satisfaction with the time taken to complete a repair, had however decreased. The reasons for this decrease would be explore in more detail with the members of the Tenants Panel. Conversely, the proportion of non-emergency and emergency repairs completed within the Council’s target timescale had increased.

It was notable that the number of complaints, both at Stage 1 and 2, that had been responded to within the Housing Ombudsman’s Compliant Handling Code timescales had improved significantly when compared to the 2023/24 figures.

The Housing and Planning Portfolio Holder made the following statement:-

“Leader, I am pleased to introduce this report to Cabinet reporting on the Council’s performance of the Regulator for Social Housing’s (RSH) Tenant Satisfaction Measures (TSMs) for 2024/2025.

As Cabinet is aware, all Social Housing Providers are required by the Regulator to collect data to inform the TSMs which are aimed at improving standards for those living in social housing.

There are 22 TSMs, grouped into five themes, these being Keeping properties in good repair, Maintaining building safety, Respectful and helpful engagement, Complaints handling, and Neighbourhood management .

Twelve of the measures, are measured by an annual tenant perception survey, with the other ten measured by landlords through performance indicators.

The RSH sets out its requirements for data collection and reporting (including mandatory questions and methodology). Landlords with over 1,000 or more homes are required to submit their data to the RSH by 30^th June.

As can be seen from the report, this council’s performance, against the Tenant Satisfaction Measures, indicates a general improvement in performance and tenant satisfaction, although there are areas where there has been a decrease, in relation to repairs and satisfaction in the time taken to complete a repair.

I would draw Cabinet’s attention to the data, which is shown in Appendix A to this report (Pages 211-212), as well as the comparison between the previous years data to this in Appendix B to this report (Pages 213-215). There is, Leader, a slight amendment to the date shown for NM01 (Page 212), the number of ASB cases per 1,000. Within the Agenda it shows 98.5, this should in fact read as 98.8.

As I mentioned in the previous report, there was a Tenants Panel meeting this week (Tuesday) and these TSM’s were discussed with them, together with the setting up of sub-committees to look into various issues, including the detail of the data provided around TSMs.”

Having duly considered the Portfolio Holder’s report and receiving formally the outturn performance report before its submission to the Regulator of Social Housing and publication on the Council’s website:-

It was moved by Councillor Baker, seconded by Councillor M E Stephenson and: -

RESOLVED that Cabinet –

(a)    notes the Council’s Outturn Performance Report against the Tenant Satisfaction Measures, for publication on the Council’s website and submission to the Regulator of Social Housing by 30 June 2025; and

(b)    requests the Corporate Director (Operations and Delivery) to ensure that the Council’s Tenants Panel examines the data presented in this report and to develop an action plan for continuous improvement.