The New Standardised Tenant Satisfaction Surveys (Agenda Edition 7) 

Subjects for Tenant Groups to discuss with their landlord

Some tenant groups have asked us for topical agenda items/subject briefings for their tenant group to discuss with their landlord.  TPAS Cymru have created a briefing series that we call ‘The Agenda’ which provides tenant groups with an overview of a subject and suggestions of questions you might want to ask in your engagement with your landlord.  This briefing will focus on the following:

The New Standardised Tenant Satisfaction Surveys

Welsh Government and social landlords want to be sure that tenants in Wales enjoy high quality homes and landlord services - particularly repairs and maintenance.

To help find out what tenants think about the services they receive the Welsh Government now requires all social landlords, Housing Associations and Councils, to carry out Standardised Tenant Satisfaction Surveys.

The results of the surveys will then be published on a central website to assist tenants in scrutinising and comparing landlord performance. Landlords can also publish their own results to share with their tenants.

The detail

The standardised survey needs to be carried out at least every 2 years. Social landlords can do them more often if they want to. They can also do other satisfaction surveys. These surveys are sometimes referred to as STAR surveys.

Many questions in the surveys ask tenants how satisfied they are with a particular service. There are 12 core questions which all landlords need to ask in the survey, which are listed below.  Landlords can ask other additional questions.

The Core Questions:

1. How satisfied or dissatisfied are you with the service provided by your social landlord?
2. How satisfied or dissatisfied are you with the overall quality of your home?
3. Generally, how satisfied or dissatisfied are you with the way your social landlord deals with repairs and maintenance?
4. How satisfied or dissatisfied are you that your service charges provide value for money?
5. How satisfied or dissatisfied are you with your neighbourhood as a place to live?
6. How satisfied or dissatisfied are you that your rent provides value for money?
7. How satisfied or dissatisfied are you that your social landlord listens to your views and acts upon them?
8. Thinking about your home specifically, how satisfied or dissatisfied are you that your social landlord provides a home that is safe and secure?
9. How satisfied or dissatisfied are you with the way your social landlord deals with anti social behaviour?
10. How satisfied or dissatisfied are you with opportunities given to you to participate in your social landlord’s decision- making processes?
11. How satisfied or dissatisfied are you that your social landlord gives you a say in how services are managed?
12. To what extent do you agree with the following statement - "I trust my social landlord"

Questions for tenants to ask:-

1. What methods does your landlord use to carry out its surveys? e.g. by phone, online, by post.
2. Are these methods inclusive for all the tenants who live in your landlord’s homes?
3. Have tenants been involved in designing the best methods to use?
4. What support is available to help tenants complete the surveys?
5. How does your landlord promote the surveys and encourage tenants to complete them?
6. What % of tenants complete the surveys? – (response rates)
7. Do the tenants who respond reflect the diversity of your landlord’s tenants?
8. How are the results of surveys shared with all tenants?
9. How are tenants involved in looking at the survey results and working with the landlord to identify any improvements to services needed?

We would love to hear about your conversations with your landlords. So please email [email protected]