What you need to know
As of April 2023 the government requires all housing providers in England to collect data on how well they are performing at providing good homes and services.
Covering things that are important to you like neighbourhood support, repairs, maintenance, customer engagement and complaints handling.
We'll assess how well we're performing by carrying out tenant satisfaction surveys every three months, sending them out to residents by text or email. You'll be also be able to request a paper copy too.
For the Tenancy Satisfaction Survey, we adopted a mixed-method approach to ensure we reached a diverse range of tenants. In the first three quarters (Q1, Q2, and Q3), we contacted 25% of tenants per quarter using an online survey. This method allowed us to gather feedback quickly and efficiently from tenants who are comfortable with digital communication. However, recognising that some tenants may not have access to or prefer not to use the internet, we conducted the survey for the remaining 25% of tenants in quarter 4 via phone interviews. This approach ensured that we could capture feedback from a broader cross-section of tenants, making the results more representative of our community.
We'll make sure that every resident has had an opportunity to have their say at least once a year.
We collected responses in two ways:
- Online via a digital survey - you can find a copy of these survey questions here.
- By telephone, which was completed on our behalf by an external company. You can find a copy of these survey questions here.
The feedback residents provide will help us to spot and resolve issues. The results also make sure we're on the right track and are focused on the things that matter to residents. These results are then published, and the Social Housing Regulator can monitor and take action if they feel it's needed.
We want your honest feedback on how you think we're performing at providing good homes and services. If you receive a survey notification, why not sit down with a cuppa and fill it out? Your feedback will then go on to help improve our services.
We’ll review your responses every three months with our Customer Assurances Group making sure that changes have been made as a direct result of your feedback.
We’ll share regular updates on our website and on social media, with changes made as a result of your feedback. We’ll also publish our annual performance against the measures.
If you want to find out more about tenant satisfaction measures, read the Regulator of Social Housing’s guide here.
The results
As a housing association who owns more than 1,000 homes, we are now required to submit our performance against the Tenant Satisfaction Measures (TSMs). This enables you as a customer to see how we're delivering and where we need to improve.
Each year by 30 June, we must submit our performance to the Regulator of Social Housing and publish the information for customers to see. We have chosen to do that here on our website, and through our residents magazine Be Mag. You can view Be Mag online here, or if you would like to sign up please email hello@honeycombgroup.org.uk or call 01782 744533.
With customers across England, the Regulator for Social Housing established 22 Tenant Satisfaction Measures, covering five themes. Ten of these are measured by monitoring performance, and 12 are measured by asking you what you think through a survey.
Last year between 1 April 2023 - 31 March 2024 we received 517 surveys from you our customers, via email, SMS, or over the telephone. We ensured that we secured a good balance of customers from diverse locations, property types, and ages to really get a reflective view. Thank you to everyone who took part and contributed.
Building safety
- We invested heavily over the past year, increasing the size of the compliance team to ensure that every home was safe.
- It's really important that you let us into your homes so we can ensure you're safe.
- We are also investing heavily in reviewing the quality of each and every home. So far we’ve physically inspected 20% of homes, but by March 2025 we plan to have physically inspected 80% of homes. In these inspections we want to make sure that your home meets the Decent Home Standard so we know where to invest if it doesn’t.
Anti-social behaviour
- We want to ensure we're reducing the number of ASB cases you experience and so will be looking into this more closely as a priority.
- Our new neighbourhood model will mean you'll have a dedicated Neighbourhood Officer who can support you with anti-social behaviour and anything else relating to your housing journey. The new model provides more opportunities for staff to visit your homes and be present which we hope will help to reduce incidents of anti-social behaviour.
Decent Homes Standards and repairs
- You told us that our repairs service wasn't working for you, so mid-year we took on your feedback and changed our repairs provider to UMS. UMS are a local provider with large teams of trained tradespeople which means they have more flexibility, knowledge, and skills. Their online, real-time booking system also means more appointment options and they also have a useful appointment reminder SMS service too.
- Moving forward we'll continue to monitor the service and make changes where necessary, because we know how important this is for you.
Complaints
- We are doing a lot to improve our complaints process. Since it's launch on 1 April, we've adopted the Housing Ombudsman's new Complaint Handling Code.
- We've reviewed our policies and procedures in-line with the code and completed a self-assessment against them.
- We're also making staff aware of changes with training and new objectives to keep the focus.
- We've made changes to our system so any service requests can be logged, and have updated our websites with new customer guidance.
- We've also appointed a complaints Board Champion and have introduced new customer satisfaction questions.
Tenant perception measures
- Moving forward, we will report on how we're improving these tenant perception measures at least four times a year (every quarter).
- If you'd like to get involved in helping us to shape these improvements please get in touch:
01782 744533
involve@honeycombgroup.org.uk
