Tenant Satisfaction Measures (TSMs)
Executive Summary
Tenant Satisfaction Measures (TSMs) were introduced by the government in April 2023 to provide a consistent and transparent way of assessing how satisfied tenants are with their homes and housing services. These measures are overseen by the Regulator of Social Housing and allow landlords like St Albans City & District Council to monitor performance, identify areas for improvement, and compare results with other providers.
We are pleased to note that there has been positive movement in our complaints satisfaction and our communication about things that matter to tenants. However, satisfaction with repairs, maintenance and taking tenant’s views into account remain a clear priority. These insights are directly informing our service planning, resident engagement, and improvement activity for the year ahead.
Our Approach
How do we collect feedback from tenants? Toggle accordion
To ensure independence and fairness, we work with CX Feedback — a specialist company commissioned to carry out the tenant satisfaction survey on our behalf.
Our survey targeted a total population of 4,640 tenants to give all tenants an opportunity to take part and was undertaken between December 2025 and February 2026.
How many tenants did we speak to? Toggle accordion
An invitation to participate was sent by email or SMS to all tenants living in council-managed homes at the time, where we held an email address or mobile phone number. This included a secure link to an online survey. We wrote to all tenants without an email address or mobile phone number to invite them to contact us if they wanted to take part in the survey. We received 857 completed responses, representing 18.5% of our tenants. We are very grateful to all residents who took the time to share their feedback.
An 18.5% response rate gives us results with a margin of error of ±3% at the 95% confidence level. This means that if we surveyed every tenant, the results would likely fall within 3% of those reported here. This exceeds the Regulator of Social Housing’s minimum standards for statistical reliability.
To ensure the findings accurately reflected the diversity of the Council’s housing stock, CX-Feedback monitored key demographic and tenancy characteristics against the known profile of the total population including:
- Age Group
- Gender
- Length of tenancy
Due to the high response rate, weighting was not required.
How do we compare? Toggle accordion
This is the third year of collecting Tenant Satisfaction Measures, which means we can now compare this year’s performance with last year’s and the data for 2023-2024. These comparisons are shown in the results tables on this webpage and help us to identify trends and service improvements.
The Regulator of Social Housing’s Headline report 2024/25 showed a digital approach to the TSMs generally produces the lowest satisfaction results, with postal surveys (which we used last time) the highest. Their data suggests there could be a variance of up to 19% so the drop in performance we have experienced is likely to have been affected by the change in our approach
Even taking account for that, we are disappointed that satisfaction has fallen in most metrics, especially as we have made changes to improve engagement, communication and performance over the last reporting year.
We also use the data to benchmark our performance against other housing providers. All social landlords are required to publish their results, and the Regulator of Social Housing will also release national comparison data. This helps tenants considering mutual exchanges or new tenancies to make informed choices.
What did the results tell us?
The results continue to inform our departmental action plan and two targeted improvement plans, one for complaint handling and one for responsive repairs. All actions are monitored through regular reporting to the Tenant and Leaseholder Forum and the Housing and Inclusion Committee.
Key findings from the 2025/26 survey:
- Overall satisfaction was 51.9%, down from 54% in 2024/25. Some of this change is likely to reflect the move from a postal to an online survey rather than a change in service.
- Our strongest results were satisfaction that the home is safe (57.5%) and agreement that we treat tenants fairly and with respect (55.8%).
- Satisfaction with complaint handling remains our lowest result at 23.1%, although this improved from 21% in 2024/25. Around one in three tenants who responded told us they had made a complaint in the last 12 months, and improving how we handle and resolve complaints remains a top priority.
- Tenants told us we are better at giving information (50.3% satisfied) than we are at listening to tenants’ views and acting on them (39.6% satisfied). Our Resident Engagement and Influence Strategy is being reviewed and developed in direct response to this, and we will be asking tenants to help us with this.
- Half of tenants (50.1%) were satisfied with the repairs service, but satisfaction with the time taken to complete repairs was lower at 47.4%, with around one in four respondents very dissatisfied. Repair times are a core focus of the Responsive Repairs Improvement Plan.
Satisfaction with communal area cleaning and maintenance was 40.7%. We are in the process of procuring a new contract and have sought the views of tenants and leaseholders to shape the new service.
Representativity of our Tenant Satisfaction Measures
To ensure the representativity of our Tenant Satisfaction Measures (TSM) survey results, we compared the profile of tenants who completed the survey with the profile of those invited to take part.
The review looked at four key characteristics: age, ethnicity, gender, and tenancy length. By comparing respondents against the invited sample, we can identify whether any groups were significantly under or over-represented and assess how well the survey reflects the views of our wider tenant population.
The findings show that the demographic profile of respondents was broadly in line with the original sample across all categories. While there were some minor variations, no significant representativity concerns were identified. This provides confidence that the survey results are a fair and accurate reflection of tenant views and experiences across our housing service.
Breakdown for representativity by Age Toggle accordion
Age band | Completed surveys | Survey Invites Sent |
16–24 | 1% | 1% |
25–34 | 6% | 8% |
35–44 | 15% | 16% |
45–54 | 22% | 20% |
55–64 | 25% | 22% |
65–74 | 21% | 17% |
75–85 | 9% | 11% |
Over 85 | 2% | 4% |
Breakdown for representativity by Ethnicity Toggle accordion
Ethnic background | Completed surveys | Survey Invites Sent |
White British | 59% | 56% |
Unknown | 9% | 12% |
Refused | 8% | 10% |
White Other | 5% | 4% |
Asian/British Bangladeshi | 4% | 4% |
Black/British African | 3% | 1% |
Asian/British Pakistani | 2% | 2% |
Asian/British Other | 2% | 2% |
Mixed White/Black Caribbean | 2% | 3% |
Other ethnic | 2% | 2% |
Black/British Caribbean | 1% | 1% |
White Irish | 1% | 1% |
Mixed Other | 1% | 1% |
Asian/British Indian | 0% | 1% |
Breakdown of Representativity by Gender Toggle accordion
Gender | Completed surveys | Survey Invites Sent |
Female | 72% | 68% |
Male | 28% | 32% |
Breakdown of Representativity by Tenancy Length Toggle accordion
Tenancy length | Completed surveys | Survey Invites Sent |
Less than 1 year | 3% | 2% |
1–5 years | 29% | 23% |
6–10 years | 17% | 16% |
11+ years | 51% | 58% |
Further Insight
Analysis of the responses provided additional insight that is shaping how we engage and where we focus:
- Satisfaction tends to increase with tenant age.
- Satisfaction is highest among tenants living in bungalows. On home safety, more than three in four bungalow residents were satisfied, compared with fewer than half of tenants living in flats.
- Tenants in flats and maisonettes reported lower satisfaction across several measures, which is informing how we prioritise estate services and communal works.
Resident feedback remains central to service improvement, and progress will continue to be monitored through performance reporting, future surveys and resident forums.
To find out more or get involved in shaping services, please visit the Resident Engagement page or contact the Housing Services Team.
Tenant Satisfaction Measures - 2025-26 Toggle accordion
Measure | Reporting method/expression (of 4749 Dwellings) | Total |
CH01/1 Complaints relative to the size of the landlord- St.1 | Per 1,000 dwellings | 34.5 |
CH02/2 Complaints relative to the size of the landlord- St.2 | Per 1,000 dwellings | 7.4 |
CH02/1 Proportion of stage one complaints responded to within the Housing Ombudsman’s Complaint Handling Code timescales. | Percentage | 82.9% |
CH02/2Proportion of stage two complaints responded to within the Housing Ombudsman’s Complaint Handling Code timescales. | Percentage | 71.4% |
NM01 ASB cases relative to the size of the landlord | Per 1,000 dwellings | 21.7 |
NM02 Hate crimes reported relative to the size of the landlord | Per 1,000 dwellings | 0.6 |
RP01 Homes that do not meet the Decent Homes Standard | Percentage | 2 |
RP02 Repairs completed within target timescales | Percentage |
|
| Percentage | 81.5 |
| Percentage | 97.4 |
BS01 Gas safety checks | Percentage | 99.7 |
BS 02Fire safety checks | Percentage | 100 |
BS03 Asbestos safety checks | Percentage | 100 |
BS04 Water safety checks | Percentage | 100 |
BS05 Lift safety checks | Percentage | 100 |
Tenant Satisfaction Measures - 2024-25 Toggle accordion
Measure | Reporting method/expression | Total |
4814 Dwellings | ||
Complaints relative to the size of the landlord- St.1 | Per 1,000 dwellings | 43 |
Complaints relative to the size of the landlord- St.2 | Per 1,000 dwellings | 10.9 |
Complaints responded to within Complaint Handling Code timescales St.1 | Number of cases | 79.6 |
Complaints responded to within Complaint Handling Code timescales St.2 | Number of cases | 72.5 |
ASB cases relative to the size of the landlord | Per 1,000 dwellings | 19.3 |
Hate crimes reported relative to the size of the landlord | Per 1,000 dwellings | 0.2 |
Homes that do not meet the Decent Homes Standard | Percentage | 2.6% |
Repairs completed within target timescales | ||
a) Non emergency Repairs (28 days) | Percentage | 79.3% |
b) Emergency repairs 24 hours | Percentage | 97.4% |
Gas safety checks | Percentage | 99.7% |
Fire safety checks | Percentage | 100% |
Asbestos safety checks | Percentage | 100% |
Water safety checks | Percentage | 100% |
Lift safety checks | Percentage | 100% |
Tenant Satisfaction Measures - 2023-24 Toggle accordion
Measure | Reporting method/expression | Total |
4899 Dwellings | ||
Complaints relative to the size of the landlord- St.1 | Per 1,000 dwellings | 13.88 |
Complaints relative to the size of the landlord- St.2 | Per 1,000 dwellings | 4.69 |
Complaints responded to within Complaint Handling Code timescales St.1 | per 1,000 dwellings | 77.94 |
Complaints responded to within Complaint Handling Code timescales St.2 | per 1,000 dwellings | 60.87 |
ASB cases relative to the size of the landlord | Per 1,000 dwellings | 15.1 |
Hate crimes reported relative to the size of the landlord | Per 1,000 dwellings | 1.63 |
Homes that do not meet the Decent Homes Standard | Percentage | 2.39% |
Repairs completed within target timescales | ||
a) Non emergency Repairs (28 days) | Percentage | 84.73% |
b) Emergency repairs 24 hours | Percentage | 98.17% |
Gas safety checks | Percentage | 99.55% |
Fire safety checks | Percentage | 100% |
Asbestos safety checks | Percentage | 100% |
Water safety checks | Percentage | 98.95% |
Lift safety checks | Percentage | 100% |
SADC Tenant Perception Survey 2025-26 Toggle accordion
Measure | St Albans 2025/26 |
TP01 Overall satisfaction with the landlord | 51.9% |
TP02 Satisfaction with repairs | 50.1% |
TP03 Satisfaction with time taken to complete most recent repair | 47.4% |
TP04 Satisfaction that the home is well maintained | 48.5% |
TP05 Satisfaction that the home is safe | 57.5% |
TP06 Satisfaction that the landlord listens to tenant views and acts upon them | 39.6% |
TP07 Satisfaction that the landlord keeps tenants informed about things that matter to them | 50.3% |
TP08 Agreement that the landlord treats tenants fairly and with respect | 55.8% |
TP09 Satisfaction with the landlord’s approach to handling complaints | 23.1% |
TP10 Satisfaction that the landlord keeps communal areas clean and well maintained | 40.7% |
TP11 Satisfaction that the landlord makes a positive contribution to neighbourhoods | 38.9% |
TP12 Satisfaction with the landlord’s approach to handling anti-social behaviour | 42.3% |
SADC Tenant Perception Survey 2024-25 Toggle accordion
Measure | St Albans 2024-25 |
TP01 Overall satisfaction with the landlord | 54% |
TP02 Satisfaction with repairs | 55% |
TP03 Satisfaction with time taken to complete most recent repair | 49% |
TP04 Satisfaction that the home is well maintained | 50% |
TP05 Satisfaction that the home is safe | 58% |
TP06 Satisfaction that the landlord listens to tenant views and acts upon them | 43% |
TP07 Satisfaction that the landlord keeps tenants informed about things that matter to them | 48% |
TP08 Agreement that the landlord treats tenants fairly and with respect | 58% |
TP09 Satisfaction with the landlord’s approach to handling complaints | 21% |
TP10 Satisfaction that the landlord keeps communal areas clean and well maintained | 44% |
TP11 Satisfaction that the landlord makes a positive contribution to neighbourhoods | 43% |
TP12 Satisfaction with the landlord’s approach to handling anti-social behaviour | 43% |
SADC Tenant Perception Survey 2023-24 Toggle accordion
Fieldwork 14/12/2023 - 14/2/2024
Measure | St Albans 2023-24 |
TP01 Overall satisfaction with the landlord | 62% |
TP02 Satisfaction with repairs | 59% |
TP03 Satisfaction with time taken to complete most recent repair | 53% |
TP04 Satisfaction that the home is well maintained | 57% |
TP05 Satisfaction that the home is safe | 65% |
TP06 Satisfaction that the landlord listens to tenant views and acts upon them | 43% |
TP07 Satisfaction that the landlord keeps tenants informed about things that matter to them | 51% |
TP08 Agreement that the landlord treats tenants fairly and with respect | 64% |
TP09 Satisfaction with the landlord’s approach to handling complaints | 25% |
TP10 Satisfaction that the landlord keeps communal areas clean and well maintained | 41% |
TP11 Satisfaction that the landlord makes a positive contribution to neighbourhoods | 49% |
TP12 Satisfaction with the landlord’s approach to handling anti-social behaviour | 43% |