Portsmouth City Council Tenant Satisfaction Measures Consultation 2024

Overall satisfaction

• The majority of tenants are satisfied with the service provided by their landlord (84%). This has remained fairly consistent with the 2023 TSM survey. Those not ‘very satisfied’ mostly suggested improvements to maintenance and repairs.

Repairs

• Around two thirds have had a repair carried out in the last 12 months (65%)
• The majority of those are satisfied with the overall repairs service and the time taken to complete repairs (87% each)
• Around half like that repairs are completed quickly and appreciate their experience of the first contact by phone to report a repair and make an appointment. Just under a fifth suggest improving the quality of repairs.

Your property

• The majority of tenants are satisfied that their landlord provides a home that is well maintained (84%), whilst 8% are dissatisfied. Those who are satisfied feel their property is in a good condition, whilst those not satisfied feel this way as maintenance is not carried out, or they have issues with damp and mould.
• The majority of tenants are satisfied that their landlord provides a home that is safe (83%), whilst 8% are dissatisfied. Those satisfied report no issues in their property, whilst those who are not satisfied raise concerns over anti-social behaviour.

Your landlord

• Over three quarters of tenants are satisfied that their landlord listens to their views and acts upon them (78%), whilst 13% are dissatisfied. Reasons for feeling both satisfied and not satisfied relate to generally feeling listened to, and 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 (82%), whilst 7% are dissatisfied. Those who are satisfied appreciate informational magazines, letters and posters, whilst those who are not satisfied feel they do not hear from their landlord frequently.
• The vast majority of tenants agree that their landlord treats them fairly and with respect (88%), whilst just 4% disagree. Those satisfied report always finding their landlord to be friendly/ polite, whilst those not satisfied do not feel listened to.

Complaints

• Only around a fifth of respondents have made a complaint to their landlord in the last 12 months (21%)
• Of those who have made a complaint, 43% are satisfied with their landlord’s approach to complaint handling 42% are dissatisfied. Tenants like that their landlord feels approachable, whilst those not satisfied report that their issues have not been resolved.

Communal areas

• Two thirds of tenants have communal areas that their landlord is responsible for maintaining.
• Of those who do, 72% feel satisfied that their landlord keeps communal areas clean and well maintained, and 16% feel dissatisfied.
• Satisfaction largely comes from cleaning and maintenance being regular and reliable, whilst those not satisfied feel that cleaning could be more frequent or thorough or have issues with other tenants creating mess.

Your neighbourhood

• Most tenants are satisfied that their landlord makes a positive contribution to their neighbourhood (70%), whilst 5% are dissatisfied. Those satisfied appreciate the outdoor areas being kept clean and maintained, whilst those not satisfied are not sure what contribution their landlord makes, or do not think their neighbourhood is clean or maintained.
• A majority of tenants feel satisfied with their landlord’s approach to handling anti-social behaviour (60%), however around a fifth are dissatisfied (21%). Those satisfied largely report not experiencing anti-social behaviour, whilst those not satisfied report lots of instances of anti-social behaviour, and do not feel the issues are taken seriously or proactively resolved.

Further comments

• 23% of tenants left further comments.
• They most commonly express that they are happy as things are or suggest improvements to maintenance and repairs (e.g. completed properly, timely), and ask for help with issues with neighbours (e.g. around anti-social behaviour).
• Some also suggest improvements to outdoor areas and bins.

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

A quantitative survey launched on 27 July 2024 and was in field until 31 December 2024.

The questionnaire contained all 12 tenant satisfaction measure perception questions, stock and tenant demographic questions to be used for weighting and analysis purposes, and additional key areas of further explanation:

• If not ‘very satisfied’ for ‘TP01: Overall satisfaction’, how PCC could improve their service to tenants [open]
• What tenants like about the repairs service [closed*]
• Suggested improvements to the repairs service [closed*]
• Why tenants provide the response they do for the remaining TSM perception questions ‘TP04 – TP12’ [closed*]
• Any further comments on service provision and suggestions for improvements [open]

The full questionnaire can be seen here: Tenant Satisfaction Measures survey 2024-2025

The paper version of the questionnaire can be seen here: Tenant Satisfaction Measures survey 2024-2025 paper version

*In the 2023-2024 TSM survey, tenants were asked to explain their answer provided for questions TP04 – TP12 in an open comment box, which underwent thematic analysis. This analysis informed the closed answer options (with an ‘other’ option) for the additional questions this year. This aims to mitigate survey fatigue by reducing the time it takes tenants to complete the survey, in addition to providing efficiencies in analysis of the data. Results from previous consultations can be seen here: Tenant Satisfaction

Data analysis was carried out by the Council’s corporate market research team. The team operates outside of the landlord service.

Completion method and promotion

The survey was conducted using an online, paper and face-to-face methodology, with the option for telephone offered to all tenants. It was promoted through targeted marketing and communication channels to reach all Portsmouth City Council tenants, including the following:

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

Completion with assistance from PCC
Base: Total sample (1,039)

Completion method
Base: Total sample (1,039)

Over half of surveys were completed with assistance from PCC (60%). The highest proportion of surveys were completed through door knocking. In line with tenant preference, and to reduce bias, this was carried out by the Council’s corporate engagement team, rather than within the housing team.

This method was chosen as the most effective to engage with the required number of tenants (see more in the ‘Response rate and sampling’ section) and allowed a targeted approach based on representativeness of stock/ property type and area. Previous resident engagement has shown that many tenants struggle to understand language used in the TSM perception surveys. Using a face-to-face methodology aimed to help those tenants struggling to complete the questionnaire on their own due to a range of language difficulties including low literacy levels

Prize draw

To ensure the Council met the required sample size to achieve a maximum 3% margin of error, the survey included a prize draw for all tenants completing the full survey, to try and encourage tenants to complete the survey. The prize draw consisted of six prizes: One £250 shopping voucher, and five £50 shopping vouchers. Winners were chosen randomly, and their details were stored separately to their responses to the questionnaire.

Tenant population

Whilst Portsmouth City Council’s property number is is 15,475, guidance advises that the perception survey is only relevant to those with whom the authority has a direct management relationship. In addition, this year the rough sleeping pathway properties have also been excluded from the survey. Whilst residents were offered the opportunity to respond, no returns were received.

Due to this, combined with the level of support needs and transient nature of the accommodation, these properties were excluded from the overall tenant number.  Whilst the survey was open to leaseholders and shared owners so that their feedback could be captured, these are not included as part of the tenant population or this report.

In total the survey received 1,039 responses from tenants. With a total social housing tenant population of 15,358, this volume of responses ensures a 95% confidence level with a margin of error of 3%. This is in line with the requirements set out by Regulator of Social Housing (RSH).

The RSH states that only one response per household may be permitted. To ensure this, and that all responses came from valid tenants, respondents were asked to provide their home address. These addresses were checked and validated by the housing team and duplicates were removed from the final sample; only the first response per valid household was counted. This data was stored separately to respondent’s answers.

Sampling

This consultation used a mixed-method sampling approach. Primarily, self-selected sampling was used, as all PCC tenants were given the opportunity to complete the survey. As referenced in the methodology, this approach was enhanced by door knocking, which was carried out with around 740 tenants. These households were targeted through stratified purposive sample, to try and ensure a fairly representative original sample (prior to data weighting), based on property type and area.

Another requirement set out by the RSH is for the responses to be largely representative of the tenant population. Guidance suggests assessing representativeness based on stock type, age of respondent, ethnicity, building type, and property or household size. Due to a lack of comprehensive data on ethnicity and property or household size, these characteristics were excluded from assessing the representativeness of the sample. Area and sex of respondent were chosen instead, providing more appropriate and accurate data.

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.

Data weighting was outsourced to QPSMR Limited. RIM (Random Iterative Method) was used to weight the data on these characteristics. RIM was used as the Council holds tenant demographic information by category (e.g. age, sex, property type), but not specific information for how these intersect with each other (e.g. x amount of “males” aged x living in x). RIM weighting proportionally weights the data on each factor and adjusts the data to ensure there is a balance of all demographic information provided. The final weighted data returned by QPSMR were validated by the Council’s market research team.

The below table display the original and post weighted sample breakdowns.