Time for a new system of resident satisfaction measurement

A more robust way of testing resident satisfaction is needed in order to produce accurate and relevant performance measurement for housing associations, a new report has found.

The report, “Assessing Resident Satisfaction”, was commissioned by housing association L&Q to investigate the robustness of the current regulatory regime for the measurement of resident satisfaction in social housing. It also aims to contribute towards the development of new performance indicators that will complement new standards being introduced by the Tenant Services Authority (TSA).

It is 10 years since the introduction of STATUS, the standard tenant survey model developed by the National Housing Federation, and STATUS-derived satisfaction ratings have come to play a major role in judgements by the regulators about how effective landlords are.

However, while STATUS is already considered by many to be a highly standardised format, research evidence suggests that there are significant differences across the social housing sector in the way these surveys are actually carried out. These differences include the way that surveys are completed, the questions that are asked and the way that satisfaction performance indicators are calculated. Tenant responses to satisfaction surveys can also be heavily skewed by economic, geographical and demographic factors outside a landlord’s control.

These factors are rarely taken into consideration though when making judgements about social housing providers. Despite these issues, the existing national “league table” produced by the TSA lists some landlords as “top performers” even though they deviate from recommended survey practices. The table also fails to address how the external factors beyond a landlord’s control can affect results.

Mike Donaldson, Group Director of Resident Services at L&Q, said: “In light of this, some doubt is cast over the validity of the rankings that are often published. We would encourage the TSA to develop a new regime.

“With ever-growing importance being attached to tenant satisfaction ‘ratings’, there is a strong case for greater standardisation in how the measurements are obtained and more attention paid to the context in which organisations operate.

“Reform of the regime should include the development of a common framework across social housing. The scope for incorporating customer satisfaction measurement ideas used by the private sector should also be investigated. We would also like to see peer groups, based on size, type and operating area, more clearly defined so that tenant satisfaction between organisations could be compared with greater validity.”

He added: “The inclusion of customer satisfaction ratings within social landlords’ future performance targets has become increasingly common. However, the effect of the recession in depressing national scores for customer satisfaction across public services in general has provided a sharp reminder that such ratings are subject to influences outside a service provider’s control. This development poses a challenge to the belief that simple longitudinal monitoring of customer satisfaction is the ultimate measure of an organisation’s performance.”

The report, which was carried out by Heriot-Watt University in association with Ipsos MORI also found:

• Those HAs who undertake stock transfers tend to score higher in the ratings than those who simply provide General Needs housing.

• LAs tend to score lower than Housing Associations but that the gap has narrowed significantly in the past 10 years

• Satisfaction ratings currently average around 72% with HAs which is still someway behind private sector services.

You can download a summary of Assessing Resident Satisfaction (pdf 4.87mb) here.

You can download the full report of Assessing Resident Satisfaction (pdf 1mb) here.