Using tenant satisfaction measures to assess our housing performance
The Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) is a government agency that aims to promote a viable, efficient, and well-governed social housing sector. In short, the RSH works to make sure that landlords:
- provide homes that are safe, warm, and well maintained
- provide homes that deliver good quality services to tenants
- hear and respond to tenants' voices.
To help achieve this they set prescribed standards, carry out checks and inspect social housing landlords to help make sure they are well-governed, financially viable, and offer value for money. They can step in to take appropriate action if the outcomes of the standards are not being delivered. From 1 April 2024, they have expanded powers and now carry out routine inspections of social housing landlords.
What are the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) Standards
The RSH has two sets of standards:
Economic standards
These are to make sure social housing landlords are financially viable and properly managed and perform their functions efficiently, effectively, and economically.
As a local authority provider, it's only the rent standard that we have to meet. This standard sets out how social housing landlords set their rents. For information about the rent standard visit Rent Standard and Guidance on GOV.UK.
Consumer standards
The main themes these focus on are:
- Keeping tenants homes safe and in a good state of repair.
- Engaging with customers in a helpful and respectful way.
- Delivering responsive services and handling complaints effectively.
- Managing neighbourhoods and tenancies in a responsible way.
The service outcomes and specific expectations that landlords must meet are set out in four revised consumer standards on GOV.UK:
- Safety and Quality Standard
- Transparency Influence and Accountability Standard
- Tenancy Standard
- Neighbourhood and Community Standard
Measuring our Performance
To accompany the new standards, the RSH set out 22 standard measures called the Tenant Satisfaction Measures, or TSMs for short.
These TSMs must be measured and reported back to the Regulator of Social Housing by all social housing landlords, who have been collecting the information they need to do this since April 2023.
The reported TSMs intended to summarise how well a landlord's service is operating and every landlord must publish this information to make this performance visible their tenants, other interested residents, and partner organisations. The results can be used by tenants to help hold their landlords to account and see how they compare to other landlords' services.
Some of this information used in the TSMs is taken direct from the councils' management systems, such as reported incidences of Anti-Social behaviour, number of complaints and building safety information such as the number of gas checks completed.
Other measures are based on survey questions completed by tenants. Here in Lewes and Eastbourne the councils use an external provider called Acuity to carry out phone surveys to help us understand how tenants think we are performing.
These surveys ask general questions about the housing service the councils provide, how fairly services are delivered, and how well they maintain tenants' homes. Or they may ask more specific sets of questions on recent services tenants have experienced, such as:
- a repair
- major repair improvements
- a complaint made about our service
- a report of anti-social behaviour
- new lettings
Acuity will only call between 9am to 8pm from Monday to Friday, and 10am to 6pm on Saturdays. The survey takes about 10 minutes to complete. The Acuity number is 01273 093 939 (a Brighton Area code).
If you do NOT wish to share your feedback on services we provide, we will make sure you are not contacted by Acuity.
Confidentiality and data protection
The surveys are confidential but Acuity will ask you if you are happy for them to pass on any additional details to us.
All the calls are recorded for training and quality purposes.
Acuity is a company partner member of the Market Research Society and is registered with the Information Commissionaires Office, and in line with the Data Protection Act is not permitted to release any details to any other organisation.
Under the Data Protection Act, Acuity is not permitted to release any information that would allow an individual to be identified without their active consent.
Acuity holds ISO20252:2019, which is the quality standard for market research companies.
How Lewes District Council is performing against the standards
Internally we have reviewed the new Consumer Standards and assessed ourselves against these.
We will discuss the resulting action plan with our tenants shortly. We will then complete this self-assessment every year as part of our work with our involved tenants in our new Governance structures, and share with both Cabinets.
We will publish a summary of our improvement action plan once it has been approved.
Annual summary results
Lewes District Council key housing satisfaction metrics - summary results 2023/24
In 2023/24, almost two-thirds of tenants (65%) are satisfied with the overall service provided by Lewes District Council.
The highest levels of satisfaction are for the quality of the home (75%), the provision of a safe home (74%), being treated fairly and with respect (73%) and being kept informed about things that matter to the tenant (70%).
However, some measures have satisfaction levels below 60%: general repairs and maintenance service (59%), the handling of anti-social behaviour and communal areas being clean and well maintained (both 56%) and listening to and acting on views (55%). The lowest satisfaction is for complaints handling at just 20%.
Overall Satisfaction 65%
75% Quality of home
66% Well maintained home
74% Safe home
68% Repairs - Last 12 months
62% Time taken - Last repair
59% Repairs and maintenance
56% Communal areas clean and well maintained
61% Positive contribution to neighbourhood
56% Handling of anti-social behaviour
62% Easy to deal with
55% Listens and acts
70% Kept informed
73% Treated fairly and with respect
20% Complaints handling
Complaints performance report
The Housing Ombudsman has also produced guidance which we are required to follow which relates to our complaints handling performance.
The aim of the Housing Ombudsman code is that 'landlords must embrace complaints through increased transparency, accessibility and complaint handling governance, demonstrating that residents are core to its service delivery and good complaint handling is central to that'
We are required to produce an annual self-assessment against the code:
- Lewes District Council Complaints Self-Assessment 2024 (PDF) [480KB]
- Annual complaints report Lewes District Council 2023-24 (PDF) [310KB]
- Statement of Lewes District Council in relation to the Annual Complaints Performance Report (PDF) [125KB]
These documents are reviewed by our governing bodies and the member responsible for complaints - our Lead Councillor:
- Councillor Slater - Cabinet Member for Social Housing and Tenants, Lewes District Council
When will the councils' housing services be inspected?
Each Local Authority will be inspected every four years.
You can find further information on the Inspection Plan on GOV.UK.
Can I complain directly to the regulator
The Regulator of Social Housing encourages tenants to make complaints direct to their landlord, as their role is not to resolve individual disputes between landlord and tenant.
If you have a complaint you can make a referral to the Regulator if you feel that as a social Landlord we are not delivering against the expectations of the regulatory code. Find more information at How to make a referral to us on GOV.UK.
How Eastbourne Borough Council is performing against the standards
Internally we have reviewed the new Consumer Standards and assessed ourselves against these.
We will discuss the resulting action plan with our tenants shortly. We will then complete this self-assessment every year as part of our work with our involved tenants in our new Governance structures, and share with both Cabinets.
We will publish a summary of our improvement action plan once it has been approved.
Annual summary results
Eastbourne Homes Ltd were responsible for the delivery of housing services during 2023-2024.
Key housing satisfaction metrics - summary results 2023/24
Almost seven out of ten tenants (69%) are satisfied with the overall services provided by Eastbourne Homes in 2023/24. Even more are satisfied that Eastbourne Homes provides a safe home (74%), quality of their home (73%) repairs in last 12 months, upkeep of communal areas, kept informed and treated fairly and with respect (72%).
However, just 55% are satisfied with handling of anti-social behaviour and 59% are satisfied with listening to and acting on views. The lowest satisfaction is for complaints handling at just 20%.
Overall Satisfaction 69%
73% Quality of home
66% Well maintained home
74% Safe home
72% Repairs - Last 12 months
69% Time taken - Last repair
63% Repairs and maintenance
72% Communal areas clean and well maintained
65% Positive contribution to neighbourhood
55% Handling of anti-social behaviour
65% Easy to deal with
59% Listens and acts
72% Kept Informed
72% Treated fairly and with respect
20% Complaints handling
Complaints performance report
The Housing Ombudsman has also produced guidance which we are required to follow which relates to our complaints handling performance.
The aim of the Housing Ombudsman code is that 'landlords must embrace complaints through increased transparency, accessibility and complaint handling governance, demonstrating that residents are core to its service delivery and good complaint handling is central to that'
We are required to produce an annual self-assessment against the code:
- 2023-24 Annual Complaints report Eastbourne Homes Ltd (PDF) [310KB]
- Eastbourne Borough Council Complaints Self-Assessment 2024 (PDF) [487KB]
- Statement of Eastbourne Homes Board in relation to the Annual Complaints Performance Report (PDF) [122KB]
These documents are reviewed by our governing bodies and the member responsible for complaints - our Lead Councillor:
- Councillor Peter Diplock - Cabinet Member for Housing and Planning, Eastbourne Borough Council
When will the councils' housing services be inspected?
Each Local Authority will be inspected every four years.
You can find further information on the Inspection Plan on GOV.UK.
Can I complain directly to the regulator
The Regulator of Social Housing encourages tenants to make complaints direct to their landlord, as their role is not to resolve individual disputes between landlord and tenant.
If you have a complaint you can make a referral to the Regulator if you feel that as a social Landlord we are not delivering against the expectations of the regulatory code. Find more information at How to make a referral to us on GOV.UK.
Share this page
