Issue - meetings

To inform the Performance Monitoring Panel of the 2023/24 Tenant Satisfaction Measure Results (report of the Assistant Director – Housing enclosed).

Consideration was given to the report of the Assistant Director – Housing which informed the Performance Monitoring Panel of the 2023/24 Tenant Satisfaction Measure results.

The Housing Transformation Programme Manager and Business Support Manager attended for this item.

The Housing Transformation Programme Manager introduced the report and raised the following points:

• From 2023/24, the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) required all landlords to complete Tenant Satisfaction Measure surveys on an annual basis;
• The exercise enabled tenants to hold their landlord to account and represented a means by which the RSH understood areas upon which to focus inspections;
• No deviations from the format were permitted, including survey questions;
• The operating environment for the sector included that:
  • Tenants were the least satisfied they had been in the last five years with a decline in satisfaction and a 30% increase in formal complaints;
  • One third of landlords had large volumes of overdue repairs with a 60% increase in completion times. It was noted that SHDC was currently performing well in these areas with voids below target days and repairs completed within set timescales;
• A summary of the approach for the Tenant Satisfaction Measure survey was at Appendix A;
• The Tenant Satisfaction Measure results, which referred to Housemark data, was at Appendix B; and
• A presentation which summarised the report, and included RSH data released since the report was published, was given to members at the meeting and appended to the minutes.

 Members considered the report and made the following comments:

• Members expressed concern regarding the anti-social behaviour (ASB) statistics for the ‘rural’ South Holland when compared to the national picture. Was this a growing problem in the district?
  • The Housing Transformation Programme Manager responded that:
    • The RSH had undertaken work which enabled accurate comparisons for 10,000 units across the country;
    • The statistics related to SHDC’s approach as a landlord rather than the community safety however the two teams worked together with the transfer of cases as applicable;
    • The survey results indicated that not all neighbour disputes were being categorised as ASB cases and it was felt that engagement with tenants regarding ASB required improvements;
    • A similar situation had been identified regarding complaints and a huge effort had been made within the last six months to address the issue which included that:
      • Work had been undertaken to ensure that all informally reported complaints were recorded as formal complaints;
      • A working group met every six weeks to review all complaint cases and to identify trends and learning;
      • Reports were provided regularly to the Portfolio Holder and six-monthly to Cabinet which included an update on trends and performance as well as service improvements undertaken in response to complaints; and
      • A similar focus regarding ASB would take place within the next 12 months.

• Members asked if regular comparisons of SHDC performance against national performance was undertaken and whether such findings could be reported to all members on a monthly basis. Members stated that even where SHDC performed above the national average, the council should aim to attain  ...  view the full minutes text for item 54