Portsmouth City Council Tenant Satisfaction Measures Consultation 2023

Overall satisfaction

The majority of tenants are satisfied with the service provided by their landlord (85%); just 6% are dissatisfied. Of those who are not ‘very satisfied’ with the service provided by their landlord, around a fifth feel their housing service could improve maintenance and repairs (21%), for example ensuring they are completed properly or are more timely.

Repairs

The majority of tenants have had a repair carried out in the last 12 months (72%) and are satisfied with the overall repairs service (82%), whilst 14% are dissatisfied. Of those who are not satisfied with the repairs service, nearly half feel that the standard/ quality could be improved (48%). The majority of tenants are satisfied with the time taken to complete their most recent repair after reporting it (85%). The speed, reliability and quality of repairs is praised amongst those who are satisfied, whilst repairs taking too long or not being completed is the main criticism amongst those who are dissatisfied.

Your property

Over three quarters of tenants are satisfied that their landlord provides a home that is well maintained (79%), whilst 9% are dissatisfied. The most common reason for dissatisfaction is due to homes not being in good condition and landlords not responding to or solving issues. When asked if they feel their landlord provides a home that is safe, the majority of tenants also feel satisfied (79%), whilst 10% are dissatisfied. The highest proportion are not satisfied due to issues with other people and anti-social behaviour.

Your landlord

Three quarters of tenants are satisfied that their landlord listens to their views and acts upon them, whilst 9% are dissatisfied. Reasons for feeling both satisfied and not satisfied relate to how proactive or responsive tenants find their landlord. The majority of respondents feel satisfied that their landlord keeps them informed about things that matter to them (80%), whilst 9% are dissatisfied. Those who are satisfied appreciate the distribution of paper/ posted information from their landlord, whilst those who are dissatisfied feel they do not hear from their landlord.

The vast majority of tenants agree that their landlord treats them fairly and with respect (90%), whilst just 4% disagree. Some of the comments from those who disagree mention disrespectful interactions, not feeling listened to, as well as telling us about specific issues.

Only a fifth of respondents have made a complaint to their landlord in the last 12 months. Of those who have made a complaint, just over half are satisfied with their landlord’s approach to complaint handling (53%), whilst 37% are dissatisfied. A fifth of those who are dissatisfied are frustrated that nothing has been done as a result of their complaint or that they were just redirected elsewhere by their landlord.

Communal areas

Over two thirds of tenants have communal areas that their landlord is responsible for maintaining (68%), whilst 30% do not. Of those who do, 80% feel satisfied that their landlord keeps communal areas clean and well maintained, and 11% feel dissatisfied. Those who are satisfied mention their cleaner as being good and regular, whilst those who are dissatisfied feel that the cleaning could be better (e.g. more frequent or thorough), lifts and stairwells were mentioned in particular as well as other tenants causing issues.

Your neighbourhood

Most tenants are satisfied that their landlord makes a positive contribution to their neighbourhood (69%), whilst 8% are dissatisfied. Those who are dissatisfied that their landlord makes a positive contribution most commonly mention issues with people in their neighbourhood, as well as wanting the council to be more present, proactive and involved in their neighbourhood.

A majority of tenants feel satisfied with their landlord’s approach to handling anti-social behaviour (58%), however nearly a quarter are dissatisfied (24%). Tenants who are dissatisfied complain about the number of instances of anti-social behaviour in their areas and criticise the council for not resolving reported issues.

Further comments

Just over a quarter of tenants left further comments. They most commonly express that they are happy as things are, suggest improvements to maintenance and repairs (e.g. completed properly, timely), ask for help with issues with neighbours (e.g. around ASB), or comment that there are good staff at the council.

The overall aim of this consultation is to understand how well Portsmouth City Council, as a social landlord, is doing at providing good quality homes and services, and to specifically:

• Understand how well the council are meeting relevant standards
• Make the council’s performance more visible to tenants
• Help tenants hold their landlord to account

To understand how best to engage with council tenants, discussions and an initial consultation were undertaken prior to the tenant satisfaction measures. These discussions and the consultation gathered evidence on the best channels and methods to maximise engagement with council tenants, as well as seeking some preliminary feedback from tenants on the housing service. Therefore, while quantitative questions were set out by government guidance, tenants fed into the additional qualitative questions that were asked to enrich feedback in the tenant satisfaction measures consultation. The results from the prior consultation can be found here: Engaging with our tenants and leaseholders.

The survey launched on 27 July 2023 and was in field until 10 December 2023.

It was promoted through targeted marketing and communication channels to reach Portsmouth City Council tenants, including the following:

• HouseTalk magazine and Facebook page
• Posters, flyers, and strut cards in all area offices and community centre
• Engagement events
• Door knocking

To boost responses, incentives were also offered to three randomly selected tenants who completed the survey. One tenant received an iPad, and the other two each received a £100 shopping voucher.

A requirement set out by government guidance was for sample sizes to meet a minimum level of statistical accuracy based on their population size. With a population size of 14,999, Portsmouth City Council needed to achieve a sample size of at least 750 to ensure a 95% confidence level with a margin of error no larger than 3%.

Based on previous consultation, it was evident that the council would need to offer every possible channel of engagement to reach this sample size and ensure as many tenants as possible were supported to feedback. It was also apparent that the council’s usual methods of engagement were unlikely to meet the required volume alone. Therefore, additional methods like door knocking were implemented to target council tenants in the consultation. Door knocking was carried out by an engagement team external to the housing service, in an attempt to reduce bias in these responses.

In total the survey received 946 responses from tenants, responses from leaseholders have been excluded from this report. With a total tenant population of 14,999, this volume of responses meets the parameters of government guidance, with a margin of error of 3%.

Another requirement of the tenant satisfaction measures is for the responses to be largely representative of the tenant population. Government guidance suggests assessing representativeness based on stock type, age of respondent, ethnicity, building type, and property or household size. The data was weighted using the existing demographic database of Portsmouth City Council tenants. Weighting was based on the following variables: age, sex, area, stock/ accommodation type, and property type.

Due to a lack of comprehensive data on ethnicity, this characteristic was excluded from assessing the representativeness of the sample. Area and sex of respondent were chosen instead, providing more appropriate and accurate data.