What the Tenant satisfaction measures mean for social housing landlords

1 April 2023 marks the introduction of Tenant Satisfaction Measures. In this article, we explain how social housing landlords can meet the requirements of the TSM standard and how technology can help.
 
Tenant accountability will be increased for social housing landlords from April 2023. It comes from a newly introduced system to standardise Tenant Satisfaction Measures by the UK Regulator of Social Housing.

What the Tenant satisfaction measures mean for social housing landlords
The UK Government’s ‘Charter for Social Housing Residents’ has been several years in the making, first being published in 2020.

The consultation attracted 1,098 responses from social housing tenants, councils, housing associations and others in the sector. The consultation ended in consensus, with the paper authors concluding:

“The majority of respondents supported the proposed TSMs and considered that the TSM suite would work in providing rounded information to tenants about their landlord’s performance.”

Main areas covered by the TSMs                  
The newly released tenant surveys and landlord data cover five main areas:
1.    Repairs
2.    Building safety
3.    Complaint handling
4.    Respectful and helpful tenant engagement
5.    Responsible neighbourhood management.

Tenant perception surveys and TSMs
One of the questions highlighted in the consultation paper on TSMs was the concept of a tenant perception survey: a tenant perception survey is used to generate the TSM. Over three-quarters of the consultation paper respondents agreed that these sorts of surveys were helpful. From this insight, a publication setting out the scope of tenant surveys was released in readiness for April 2023. The paper describes the survey framework needed to generate tenant perception measures.

Who must comply with the TSM requirements?
The tenant satisfaction measures will cover rented social housing in England if the landlord is registered with a ‘registered provider.’ Also, some of the TSMs will cover shared ownership homes.

Different requirements impact landlords with more than or less than 1000 homes. For example, landlords with over 1000 units must submit TSM results to the regulator annually. Those with under 1000 homes must collect and publish the results of tenant perception surveys every two years.

How to meet TSM requirements?
The TSM guidelines define how surveys are designed and delivered to tenants. Tenant perception surveys are core to meeting TSM requirements. The Regulator of Social Housing states this when collecting tenant surveys:

“Providers must ensure that they employ a suitable level of expertise to design and apply a survey methodology to generate tenant perception measures in a way that meets the requirements of this document.”

Designing and developing tenant surveys requires time and resources to understand how to configure them to meet the requirements and how effectively to deliver surveys and interpret the results. Then, once you have gathered the tenant responses, you must prepare them for publication and submission to the regulator. Fortunately, Intratone has done all the difficult work for you in the form of our latest offering, Intratone’s Interactive Digital Noticeboard.

Intratone’s Interactive Digital Noticeboard
The Interactive Digital Noticeboard is specifically designed to allow accessible and interactive communication between landlords and housing association tenants. The noticeboard removes the need for paper notices, delivering easy-to-access and read-on-screen information accessible to all.

Intratone’s Interactive Digital Noticeboard provides a template approach to delivering tenant perception surveys from an accessible, vandalism-proof, wall-hung digital device. This device provides an easy way for housing managers to pose survey questions to tenants, who can then easily choose an on-screen answer.

Answers are recorded once tenants place their key fob on the built-in proximity reader. If tenants don’t have a building-specific key fob, they can still vote using scroll keys and a contactless or near-field (NFC) device such as a credit card, mobile phone, or another type of key fob. This provides a high assurance method to tell that a tenant is genuine, and the answers can then be used to generate the TSM.

As all votes are anonymous, privacy is preserved.

The time is now for landlords to begin collecting TSM data

Click here to learn more about what’s included in the new Tenant Satisfaction Measures.
Click here for further details on how Intratone Interactive Digital Noticeboard can help your company meet the TSM requirements.