By Chloe Fletcher and Tristan Smith

Since the national Tenant Satisfaction Measures results were published by the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) before Christmas, a lot of us have been looking and reading the results of the national tenant survey that the RSH commissioned to better understand what the results were telling us.

Neil Merrick has done just that for HQN in the magazine this month and the key findings are a mix of the expected and unexpected. No prizes for thinking that satisfaction with repairs drives overall satisfaction with a landlord’s services and that people who have made a complaint are less satisfied than those who haven’t, but many tenant characteristics play a surprisingly smaller role than might be expected.

Regardless of how wide these disparities are, the TSMs do show differences in satisfaction between groups and members should look at their own results at a local level to see if certain factors and service standards are adversely affecting any particular groups of tenants.  A look at these national differences can indicate where to start to examine your local issues.

Satisfaction and age group

The survey showed that there was an 82% satisfaction rate for tenants over 65 compared to overall satisfaction rates of below 70% for under 65s. Satisfaction rates get lower further down the age range, with just 63% of those aged 35 to 64 satisfied with their home and landlord.

Looking at the 2022-23 English Housing Survey we see that 28% of all social housing tenants are 65 or older – making them the largest age group in the sector. Their interests and needs, therefore, are the majority.

They are also likely to have been in social housing for longer – 66% have been in their residence for more than 10 years, compared to just 39% of those under 65. This allows them to build a relationship with their landlord and feel content in their home.

When considering age demographics, it is also essential to consider the role of supported housing. Supported housing makes up 25% of social housing stock and, according to data collected by The National Housing Federation, 71% of that supported housing is specifically for people aged over 65. Given that this housing is designed specifically for the residents’ needs, the higher satisfaction rates suggest that landlords are handling these specific needs effectively.

Satisfaction and disability

54% of housing association tenants have a long-term illness or impairment and 18% of new lettings are to someone with a defined disability, making them by far the most prevalent group in social housing. Yet unlike with tenants over 65 (although there is certainly overlap between these groups), satisfaction is lower for disabled tenants than it is for non-disabled tenants: 68% versus 71%.

In 2018, an Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) report found that one in five disabled people in social housing live in what they defined as “unsuitable accommodation”. For these tenants particularly, it is unsurprising that satisfaction rates may be lower and social housing landlords should be looking at the adaptations they offer and their new build programmes to improve disabled tenants’ satisfaction levels.

Satisfaction and gender

Women, too, are a majority in social housing but experience a lower satisfaction rate than men: 67% versus 75%.

While further research is needed into the tenant experience, Women in Social Housing (WISH) found that 28% of housing professionals have recently experienced sexism in the workplace and 25% say there are barriers preventing women from progressing in housing careers. If sexism is prevalent enough among the professionals to affect the workplace, it is not surprising that it may also impact tenants as service users.

In addition, Soha reported that their female tenants were more likely to be dissatisfied with repairs, and through follow-up work have found that women’s dissatisfaction was not due to faulty workmanship or even punctuality, but because they found the contractors patronising. Training for repairs operatives and a more evenly balanced workforce in terms of gender in this area may be the key to improving satisfaction for female tenants.

It is also impossible to look in detail at the impact of gender on social housing satisfaction without addressing the fact that 92% of the lone parents in social housing are women. When more lone parents in social housing are women than men, issues impacting lone parents become women’s issues through that overwhelming majority. This is likely to impact satisfaction scores across gender, but direct research has yet to be conducted.

Satisfaction and ethnicity

Given that the Better Social Housing Review carried out in 2022 heard serious concerns “about the systemic disadvantage still being faced by black and minority ethnic communities in particular”, it was surprising to see that the statistical analysis does not show that a tenant’s ethnicity is a key driver for satisfaction. However, the data does show that white tenants were more likely to be satisfied with their landlord (71%) than those from minority ethnic groups (66%).

However, the National Tenant Survey report concludes that controlling for other factors may eliminate this difference in overall satisfaction with regards to ethnicity.

For instance, in many places, this may be due to the differences in age: just 6% of minority ethnic tenants are aged 65 and over – the age group that is most satisfied with their housing, but other factors are likely to be at play too. To address these differences, landlords should be asking themselves questions and digging deeper into their scores to work out why that is for them and what they can do to address it.

As Mushtaq Khan, chief executive of the Housing Diversity Network, says in the magazine article “this type of data raises more questions. Let’s see what follows on from this and how landlords use the findings to inform strategies for improving satisfaction.”

One area to explore could be the fact that data from Shelter shows that when Black-led households are housed in social housing from temporary accommodation, Black and Asian-led households are placed out of area disproportionately when compared to white households under most authorities. This may impact on their satisfaction from the beginning and then the ability to get support from family and friends on an on-going basis.

Compounding factors and structural inequalities

Though this data is split based on individual demographics, people are not only one thing, and these traits interact and intersect. How do the experiences of Black women differ from both Black men and white women, for instance? If the statistics show that over 65s have greater satisfaction than the average but disabled people have lower satisfaction, what of a disabled 70-year-old?

It also does not consider factors like poverty or experiences with discrimination. For example, a white tenant may not even be aware if their landlord harbours racist views, while a minority ethnic tenant may be subjected to this racism and feel directly unsafe as a result.

Looking forwards

As it stands, the national research does not go far enough to identify exactly why there are differences in tenant satisfaction based on their demographics. Correlations, numbers and speculation can only go so far.

The data is, fundamentally, a starting point for much-needed discussions. It gives landlords the ‘what’ and not the ‘why’ or the ‘how’.

As a landlord, improving tenant satisfaction means working with all groups of tenants to find out what they want and need. However, it is important to remember that tenants might not always feel able to speak freely about their wants, needs and experiences. Particularly for those from disadvantaged backgrounds, the fear of discrimination or being seen as ‘difficult’ can keep them from speaking up.

While that reticence can be frustrating, this is where building strong working relationships with your tenants will make all the difference. Fixing structural inequality may be out of your scope but striving to create a safe and equitable environment for all demographics is something we can all work towards.