Tenant Satisfaction Measures: Assurance of Approach

The TSM standards consist of 22 measures: 10 management information measures and 12 satisfaction measures. They cover five key themes: keeping properties in good repair, maintaining building safety, respectful and helpful engagement, responsible neighbourhood management, and effective handling of complaints, alongside an additional measure for overall satisfaction with landlord services. All information must be an accurate, reliable, valid to provide a transparent reflection of the performance.

Approach

IFF Research were commissioned to carry out this research in accordance with guidance provided by the Regulator of Social Housing on behalf of Platform Housing Group in 2023/24. IFF Research is an independent research agency with extensive experience in gathering robust customer feedback for a wide range of sectors. 

Survey design

The survey design meets the criteria as defined in ANNEX 4: Tenant Survey Requirements. Platform Housing Group also included the following additional questions within their survey:

• “Why do you say that?” positioned at the end of the theme, Overall satisfaction
• “Generally, how satisfied or dissatisfied are you with the way Platform Housing Group deals with repairs and maintenance?” positioned at the end of the theme, Keeping properties in good repair
• “How satisfied or dissatisfied are you that Platform Housing Group are easy to deal with?” positioned at the end of the theme, Respectful and helpful engagement
• “How strongly would you agree or disagree with the following statement, “I trust Platform Housing Group to do what they say they will do?” positioned at the end of the theme, Respectful and helpful engagement.

Please note that a ’Don’t know/Refused’ option was included for questions TP01, TP02, TP03, TP04, TP09 and TP10 for interviews conducted via telephone. This was not read out as an answer option and only used in instances when a customer was unable to select an option from the responses available but wanted to continue to provide their feedback. This prevented interviewers from making assumptions or inferences on the customer’s behalf and enabled these customers to continue with the survey to provide their feedback. When submitting data any ’Don’t know/Refused’ should be removed from the reported base for each of these questions for percentage calculations. 

As a result, the TSM survey results submitted may include customers who refused or were unable to answer TP01 but wanted to continue to provide their feedback. This is in line with the introductory text confirming that their data would be included in the data submission to the Regulator.

IFF have achieved:

• 2,367 valid responses to TP01 for LCRA, this exceeds the minimum requirement for LCRA
• 572 valid responses to TP01 for LCHO, which exceeds the minimum requirement for LCHO

We consider that a respondent who has terminated an interview has effectively withdrawn their consent to participate in the research. We appreciate that this is open to interpretation, but we take the most cautious approach to uphold our ethical standards. We do include partial responses, where customers have skipped or refused to answer any questions but have submitted their interview.

Methodology

The TSM survey was conducted on a monthly basis from 15th May 2023 – 27th March 2024. 

Surveys were conducted by telephone and online via email invitations. This mixed methodology supports inclusivity and flexibility for survey completion.

• 76% (1,808) of LCRA surveys were completed via telephone
• 24% (566) of LCRA surveys were completed online
• 77% (451) of LCHO surveys were completed via telephone
• 23% (131) of LCHO surveys were completed online

Sample Size 

The required sample sizes are shown in the table below:

Representative Sample

The Regulator requires providers to ensure, as far as possible, that the survey responses used to calculate the perception TSMs are representative of the relevant tenant population. The sample needs to be representative otherwise perception measures will be biased estimates of the satisfaction score for the relevant tenant population. Providers can meet this requirement through one of two routes:

1. A representative sample: This means there is no material under/over-representation of tenant groups (compared to the relevant tenant population) that is likely to affect calculated satisfaction scores.
2. Weighting responses: If the achieved sample is not representative of the tenant population then providers must appropriately weight the responses to ensure the TSMs reported are representative. Providers must reach a balanced judgement as to which characteristics to include in an assessment of representativeness based on their particular tenant profile, evidence or rationale for potential different satisfaction scores by characteristic, and available data. 

This file shows the survey profile of each available customer demographic compared with the population profile. 

Based on the review we are satisfied that the sample population and TSM results accurately reflect that of the full customer population.

Reporting: 

IFF Research has produced a final insight report based on the findings from the 2023/24 TSM survey results.