Social Research ¦ Market Research ¦ Behavioural Insight ¦ Evaluation ¦ SROI
Social Research ¦ Market Research ¦ Behavioural Insight ¦ Evaluation ¦ SROI
The aim of this research was to understand general needs and sheltered housing tenants’ priorities and concerns and to produce insights to fulfil the Housing Regulator’s requirement for an annual representative TSM Survey introduced in March 2023.
M·E·L Research needed to provide methodological rigour which balanced with the wider TSM guidelines, allowed for ability to benchmark data with other councils and public sector bodies (in this case against Housemark data), an ability to correlate data across the most recent TSM survey and the earlier TSM surveys that M·E·L had previously produced for Cannock Chase Council. Given the subject matter an inclusive approach to research participation, a positive experience for residents taking part, and ensuring representativeness of the Cannock Chase tenant profile was key.
The key research objectives of this project can be summarised as:
• To provide evidence on changes in tenant satisfaction compared to previous years
• To understand residents’ current priorities and concerns
• To produce insights that can inform current and future service changes and campaigns
• To understand residents’ perceptions of the services provided by the Council and their value for money
• To understand the experience of external contractors to inform future contracting.
The questionnaire was designed around the 12 core Tenant Satisfaction measures and expanded to include legacy questions from 2021 to allow for satisfaction trends to be monitored. Further questions were designed to allow the council to get a sense, from the tenant perspective, where the Council is performing particularly well and where they could improve – additional questions included: Rent Value for Money, the ease of contacting the council, the professionalism of council staff along with appetite for future tenant engagement activities. Within the tenant survey, questions to explore the specific experience of the sheltered housing scheme the council offers were developed.
Despite not being contractually required, M·E·L worked with the Council to develop an additional questionnaire tailored to Leaseholders, which examined Leaseholders’ satisfaction overall, their satisfaction with their neighbourhood and perception of the value for money of service charges.
The survey was primarily sent out via post, with a follow-up postal survey and subsequent email, with a link to an online survey, to ensure that all channels were available therefore maximising participation. Whilst the Leaseholder survey was sent to all leaseholders (approximately 500), for the TSM the postal survey was sent to a stratified sample of residents (approximately 2,000), this sample mirrored the profile of Cannock Chase District Council’s overall stock on the basis of age and tenure. Based on M·E·L Research’s experience with tenant surveys we were able to be confident that a sample of this size would allow for a number of responses that met the regulatory requirements, without unnecessary costs.
We provided a full report in PowerPoint format to the Council, identifying key findings aligned to the objectives above, and highlighting comparisons with data from the Housemark to help the Council benchmark their performance. We supplemented this report with follow up presentations to the Council’s leadership team and their Heads of Housing. Along with the reporting to key members of staff we produced a summary infographic and animation to disseminate results to tenants.
Compared to the latest benchmarking data, Cannock Chase show relatively high levels of satisfaction with their landlord and the service they provide, with a particular area of strength the perception that the homes the Council provide are safe. However, the Council has seen drops in satisfaction across the TSMs, this when looking at the sector trends is largely in line with the experience of landlords broadly, with a large proportion experiencing dips in satisfaction and increased complaints.
“This is the third time we have used MEL and we are very happy with their services. They are competitively priced and provide a professional service. Previously used them for STAR surveys and this time for our first Tenant Satisfaction Measures perception survey. The reporting outputs from the survey are informative and provide intelligence where we can improve services. Would have no hesitation in recommending MEL for similar projects and will certainly look to use them again next year for another TSM survey.”
