To advise Cabinet of the Council’s outturn performance against the Regulator of Social Housing’s Tenant Satisfaction Measures for 2025/26.

RESOLVED that –

 

(a)     the Council’s Outturn Performance Report against the Regulator of Social Housing’s Tenant Satisfaction Measures for 2025/26, as set out in Appendix A to the Portfolio Holder’s report (A.5), for publication on the Council’s website and submission to the Regulator of Social Housing by 30 June 2026, be noted;

 

(b)     the Council’s Performance against the Regulator of Social Housing’s Tenant Satisfaction Measures for 2025/26 compared with performance for 2023/24 and 2024/25, as set out in Appendix B to the Portfolio Holder’s report (A.5) be noted;

 

(c)     the current progress against the Tenant Satisfaction Measures Action Plan for 2024/25, as set out in Appendix C to the Portfolio Holder’s report (A.5) be noted;

 

(d)     following the Council’s Tenants’ Panel examination of the data presented in this report and its appendices, the Corporate Director (Operations and Delivery), in consultation with the Portfolio Holder for Housing and Planning, be required to develop a new action plan for 2026/27 focusing on continuous improvement, with consideration to prioritisation, resources and on-going delivery; and

 

(e)     the Action Plan for 206/27 be presented to the Council’s Audit Committee in due course to review its effectiveness and the monitoring arrangements.

 

 

Cabinet considered a report of the Housing & Planning Portfolio Holder (A.5) which advised it of the Council’s outturn performance against the Regulator of Social Housing’s Tenant Satisfaction Measures for 2025/26.

 

Cabinet recalled 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). The TSMs should also be published by those organisations for others to see.

 

It was reported that the Social Housing (Regulation) Act 2023 had set in place 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 has 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

 

·      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

 

·      Neighbourhood management

 

Members were reminded 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 2026 and the data for all landlords would be published by RSH in Autumn 2026.

 

Cabinet was informed that the Council’s Outturn Performance Report against the TSMs had indicated a slight decline in tenant satisfaction with the proportion of respondents who reported that they were satisfied with the overall service from their landlord decreasing from 81.3% in 2024/25 to 78.7% in 2025/26.

 

Satisfaction with repairs, both overall satisfaction with repairs and satisfaction with the time taken to complete a repair, had further decreased. The reasons for this would be explored 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 there had been an overall increase in the number of complaints received. The number of complaints received at Stage 1 that had been responded to within the Housing Ombudsman’s Compliant Handling Code timescales had improved when compared to 2024/25 figures but the opposite had happened in respect of Stage 2 complaints.

 

The proportion of homes that failed to meet the Decent Home standard had increased to 4.9%. This increase over the 2024/25 figure had been attributed to better data on housing stock quality following the completion of 3,022 stock condition surveys as at 31 March 2026.

 

The scores for 9 of the 12 TSMs, including overall satisfaction, reported via the tenant perception survey were above the benchmark for local authorities.

 

The Council would use information from the TSM data to inform ongoing understanding of its services and to plan service improvement.

 

At the meeting, the Portfolio Holder for Housing & Planning made the following statement:-

 

“Chairman, I am pleased to introduce this report to inform Cabinet of this Council’s outturn performance against the Regulator for Social Housing’s Tenant Satisfaction Measures.

 

As Cabinet is well aware, the Regulator for Social Housing has, since 1^st April 2023, required all Social Housing providers to collect data to inform the Tenants Satisfaction Measures (TSMs) and which are 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.

·      Giving the RSH insight into which landlords might need to improve things for their tenants.

 

There are currently 22 TSMs, although the RSH has recently introduced a further one for landlords, for the year 2026/2027, and these are grouped into the following five themes:

 

Keeping properties in good repair

Maintaining building safety

Respectful and helpful engagement

Complaints handling

Neighbourhood management

 

Ten of the TSMs are measured by landlords through their performance indicators and 12 are measured by an annual tenant perception survey.

 

The RSH also sets out its requirements (including mandatory questions and methodology) for data collection and reporting.

 

Landlords with 1,000 or more homes are required to send their data to the RSH by 30 June 2026 and the data for all landlords will be published by the RSH in Autumn 2026.

 

The Council’s Outturn Performance Report against the TSMs indicates a slight decline in performance and tenant satisfaction with the proportion of respondents who report that they are satisfied with the overall service from their landlord decreasing from 81.3% in 2024/25 to 78.7% in 2025/26.

 

Chairman, the figures for each TSM are shown within Appendix A (pages 403-405), along with Appendix B (pages 407 – 409) which also shows the performance compared with previous years. Within Appendix D, which is the full report from ARP, at page 419 of the Agenda, is shown the performance as compared to the ‘benchmark’ and you will see that our figures are above this in all but one area, in the Tenant Perception Survey.

 

The ten measured from the Council’s own data show a slight increase in Stage 1 and 2 complaints received, and the percentage of Stage 1 complaints responded to within the timescales has improved, however there has been a drop in Stage 2 complaints responded to within time. A report in relation to Complaints is due to be presented to Cabinet later in the summer.

 

You will also see a drop in the number of ASB cases, which is due to the way in which the Council now receives and registers such cases.

 

The proportion of homes that do not meet the Decent Home Standard has increased, the percentage shown, 4.9%, relates to just 152 homes. The Stock Condition Survey of all our properties has almost concluded, there are just under 200 properties that are yet to be surveyed, and work continues to access and survey these. Any Category 1 hazards that were identified at the time of the survey being undertaken were dealt with straightaway. There are a number of reasons as to why a property may not meet the Decent Home Standard, in most cases this is due to the kitchen or bathroom being older than 20 or 30 years respectively, as specified in the standard. This does not necessarily mean those installations are in poor condition or in need of urgent replacement.

 

Chairman, it is also shown that the proportion of emergency and non-emergency repairs completed within this Council’s target timescale continues to rise, this is something that I would personally like to improve further, and officers will be monitoring this going forward.

 

The next five measures relate to safety and 4 of the 5 sit at 100%, however Gas Safety checks remain constant. This is because gas safety checks are a rolling programme and in a small number of cases access to the property proves difficult to achieve. In those instances, immediate action is taken to enforce access or as a last resort disconnect the gas supply.

 

At the heart of our service are our tenants, and I can inform Cabinet that there is ongoing engagement with our tenants, through regular meetings of the main Tenant Panel, three sub-groups, and by our Tenant Involvement Officers.

 

One of the sub-groups looks at Complaints and Tenant Satisfaction Measures, and met on the 2^nd June, which I attended, and made recommendations to the main Tenants Panel, which met on Tuesday 16^th June. Their comments were as follows:

 

“We have looked at the TSM scores for 2025/2026 and feel that overall, the TSMs are satisfactory. We are pleased to note that most of the scores sit above the benchmark for local authorities although we would like to have seen an improvement over the 2024/2025 figures. Of some concern is the drop in satisfaction in relation to complaint handling and we would like to explore this further during the year.

 

We would be interested in seeing a comparison between in house and external repairs teams to see which our tenants receive a better service from.

 

Our observation is that communication between the call centre and repairs teams is sometimes poor – what you report and what they come out to repair can differ. We would like to ask the Repairs sub-group to investigate why this is happening and how to overcome it. We would like to know when the response/survey cards are being introduced again and are tenants able to submit repair requests without photos on the website – sometimes we have been told we have to provide photos.

 

We need to explain clearly the definition of what a repair is and what a complaint is. Tenants perhaps still do not know and that is why complaints and dissatisfaction with complaints has risen. We would like it explained again in Tendring Reports.”

 

As you can see Chairman, there are a number of things mentioned, and I can state that at least one of their recommendations has been acted upon and is in place (submission of online repair request without having to provide photos) and that the suggestion about entering what is/is not a complaint, to go into Tendring Reports (the quarterly Tenants Magazine) is now scheduled for the Summer issue. The main Tenant Panel endorsed the comments made by the sub-group.

 

I would like to put on record my thanks to both the Tenant Panel sub-group, and main Tenant Panel, for their comprehensive review of information made available to them on both complaints and TSMs, and their recommendations. I will also be attending the next Complaints & TSM sub-group meeting as I too would like to explore the drop in satisfaction with complaint handling.

 

Appendix C (pages 411 – 417) shows an action plan we put together following publication of the 2025/25 TSM figures. That plan is very much an ongoing plan and one that is being updated in light of these2025/26 figures. I hope the inclusion of the plan in this report demonstrates the ongoing commitment that I and officers in the service have to listening to tenant’s views and responding to them, along with what our own data shows us about the quality of the service we are providing to our tenants.

 

Chairman, I do not intend to say anything further, further details are in the report and appendices. The recommendations are shown on Page(s) 392/393 and you will note that there is a delegation to the Corporate Director (Operations and Delivery) in consultation with myself, to develop a new action plan for 2026/2027, which will show how we intend to focus on improvement, as previously mentioned. I commend them to Cabinet.”

 

In order to formally receive 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 Scott and:-

RESOLVED that –

 

(a)     the Council’s Outturn Performance Report against the Regulator of Social Housing’s Tenant Satisfaction Measures for 2025/26, as set out in Appendix A to the Portfolio Holder’s report (A.5), for publication on the Council’s website and submission to the Regulator of Social Housing by 30 June 2026, be noted;

 

(b)     the Council’s Performance against the Regulator of Social Housing’s Tenant Satisfaction Measures for 2025/26 compared with performance for 2023/24 and 2024/25, as set out in Appendix B to the Portfolio Holder’s report (A.5) be noted;

 

(c)     the current progress against the Tenant Satisfaction Measures Action Plan for 2024/25, as set out in Appendix C to the Portfolio Holder’s report (A.5) be noted;

 

(d)     following the Council’s Tenants’ Panel examination of the data presented in this report and its appendices, the Corporate Director (Operations and Delivery), in consultation with the Portfolio Holder for Housing and Planning, be required to develop a new action plan for 2026/27 focusing on continuous improvement, with consideration to prioritisation, resources and on-going delivery; and

 

(e)     the Action Plan for 206/27 be presented to the Council’s Audit Committee in due course to review its effectiveness and the monitoring arrangements.