How Residents Can Use Tenant Satisfaction Measures Against a Social Landlord

Start with a correction

There is no verified evidence in the public record of a tower-block campaign in St Helens using Tenant Satisfaction Measures against a social landlord. I have looked. If such a campaign exists, its records are not in the sources I can cite. So this article does not pretend to describe one. Instead it sets out the method a residents’ group anywhere in the Northwest could use — from a 1960s deck-access block in Kirkby to a converted mill in Rochdale — to turn the regulator’s data into questions a landlord has to answer.

That is the honest starting point. The rest is practical.

What the Tenant Satisfaction Measures actually are

The Tenant Satisfaction Measures (TSMs) are a set of defined measures that registered providers of social housing in England must collect and report each year. They are required by a Direction to registered providers, and they sit within the regulator’s Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard, which replaced the earlier TSM Standard. The regulator describes them as a tool for tenants to scrutinise their landlord’s performance, for landlords to see where they might improve, and for the regulator to gather intelligence on how far landlords are meeting the consumer standards.

Two things follow from that description. First, the TSMs are meant to be used by tenants. They are not an internal management report. Second, they are one input to regulation, not a verdict. The regulator itself says caution is required, particularly in making reasonable landlord comparisons based on TSMs in isolation. The statistics are currently official statistics in development.

Landlords that own 1,000 or more units of social housing must submit their TSM results and relevant contextual information to the Regulator of Social Housing. Smaller landlords have different arrangements, but all registered providers are required to collect and report against the core set.

The two halves of the data

TSMs come in two kinds, and confusing them is the most common mistake residents make.

Perception measures (TP01–TP12)

These come from a tenant survey. The regulator prescribes the question wording and response scales. The twelve questions cover:

• Overall satisfaction
• Satisfaction with the repairs service
• Satisfaction with the time taken to complete the most recent repair
• Satisfaction that the home is well maintained
• Satisfaction that the home is safe
• Satisfaction that the landlord listens to tenant views and acts on them
• Satisfaction that the landlord keeps tenants informed about things that matter
• Agreement that the landlord treats tenants fairly and with respect
• Satisfaction with the landlord’s approach to handling complaints
• Satisfaction that communal areas are kept clean and well maintained
• Satisfaction that the landlord makes a positive contribution to the neighbourhood
• Satisfaction with the landlord’s approach to handling anti-social behaviour

These must be generated from perception surveys only. They cannot be drawn from transactional surveys — the short questionnaire someone gets after a repair, for example. The regulator is explicit that a perception survey is intended to capture general views and is not triggered by a recent interaction.

Management information measures

These come from the landlord’s own records. They include homes that do not meet the Decent Homes Standard, non-emergency and emergency repairs completed within target timescales, gas, fire, asbestos, water and lift safety checks, complaints relative to the size of the landlord, complaints responded to within Complaint Handling Code timescales, and anti-social behaviour cases relative to the size of the landlord.

This half of the data is where a campaign often finds its strongest material, because it is the landlord’s own account of its own performance. It is harder to dismiss as a handful of disgruntled respondents.

Why a single percentage is weak evidence

A headline figure — say, 51% overall satisfaction — is a prompt, not a finding. The regulator’s caution against comparison in isolation is not bureaucratic hedging. It reflects real limits: sample sizes, survey timing, response bias, and the fact that different landlords serve different stock in different places.

What a residents’ group should do instead is read the figures in pairs and in context.

Pair perception with management information on the same theme

If satisfaction with repairs is low, look at the repairs-completed-within-target figure. If tenants say their homes are not well maintained, look at the Decent Homes Standard figure. If complaints satisfaction is low, look at the proportion of complaints answered within the Complaint Handling Code timescales.

A gap between what tenants report and what the landlord records is itself a finding worth pursuing. It may mean the target is set too loosely, that the recording is generous, or that the repair was done on time but badly. Any of those is a legitimate question.

Look at the trend, not just the year

Published returns often show more than one year. A single year’s figure tells you little; a direction of travel over two or three years tells you more. A landlord whose overall satisfaction has fallen while its repairs-completed figure has risen is telling you something about the quality of the work, not the speed.

Compare with care

Some landlords publish a local median alongside their own figures — a London Councils median, for example, appears on some published returns. Where a comparable median exists, it is useful context. Where it does not, a comparison with a landlord in a different stock profile and a different housing market is weak. Say so, rather than overclaiming.

Audit the survey itself

This is the step most campaigns skip, and it is often the most productive. The regulator’s tenant survey requirements set out rules the landlord must follow. A residents’ group can check whether it did.

• Question wording. The prescribed wording and response options must be used. Written or online surveys must include the response options as specified. Surveyors in face-to-face or telephone surveys must read the question and the response options in full.
• Order. The overall satisfaction question (TP01) must appear as the first question in any perception survey used to generate TSMs. The repairs satisfaction question (TP02) must come before the timeliness question (TP03).
• No leading. Providers must take reasonable action and care to ensure participants are not led toward a particular point of view. They must avoid additional wording or preceding questions likely to have a significant impact on responses.
• Purpose stated. The survey must tell tenants at the start that it will be used to calculate annual TSMs to be published by the landlord.
• Sample and approach. Landlords must publish a summary of their approach. That document should tell you how the sample was drawn, how many responses were achieved, and how representativeness was monitored.

A failure on any of these points is a governance issue in its own right, independent of the score. It is the kind of thing a tenant panel or a scrutiny group can raise formally, and it is harder for a landlord to brush aside than a complaint about a number.

What a published return looks like

Take a real published example, not to judge that landlord but to show the shape of the data. One local authority landlord publishes its TSM results for 2025/26 alongside 2024/25 results and a London Councils median. The page sets out the twelve perception measures and the management information measures side by side. It states that the landlord commissioned an external research company to carry out a telephone survey between April 2025 and March 2026, with 1,035 surveys completed out of around 11,950 tenants, and that participation was monitored by gender, ethnicity and age to make the results as representative as possible.

That is the level of detail a residents’ group should expect. If your landlord’s published return does not say who carried out the survey, how many responses were achieved, and how representativeness was checked, ask for the summary of approach. It is a required document.

Another published example, from a housing association, reports headline figures by theme and states that it commissioned an independent satisfaction survey with a representative sample by age, gender, ethnicity and location. The pattern is consistent: the good returns tell you how they know what they know.

Pair TSMs with the complaints route

TSMs are the landlord’s own data, collected under the regulator’s rules. Complaints are a second, independent evidence stream. The Housing Ombudsman publishes resident information, an online complaint form, guidance on when to get help from the Ombudsman, and guidance on how to complain to a landlord. It also publishes the Complaint Handling Code and the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, and it publishes landlord performance data.

That matters because a campaign that relies only on TSMs is arguing about a survey. A campaign that pairs a low complaints-satisfaction score with a pattern of complaints that were not answered within the Code timescales, and with Ombudsman casework on the same theme, is arguing about a record.

The two streams should run in parallel, not in sequence. Log complaints as they arise. Keep the reference numbers. Note the dates. The TSM figure gives you the aggregate; the complaint file gives you the particular.

A practical checklist for a residents’ group

1. Get the published return. Find your landlord’s TSM page. If it is not published, ask for it in writing.
2. Get the summary of approach. This should describe the survey method, sample and representativeness checks.
3. Check the question wording and order against the regulator’s tenant survey requirements. Note any deviation.
4. Read the perception and management measures in pairs on the themes that matter most to your block — repairs, safety, complaints, communal areas.
5. Look at the trend across the years published, not just the latest figure.
6. Compare only where a comparable median exists, and say plainly when it does not.
7. Log complaints in parallel, with dates and reference numbers, and use the Ombudsman’s Complaint Handling Code as the standard to measure against.
8. Put the questions in writing to the landlord, copied to the tenant panel or scrutiny group, and ask for a written response with a date.

What TSMs cannot do

They cannot prove a breach of the consumer standards. They cannot trigger enforcement on their own. A low score is a question to put to the landlord, not a finding. The regulator’s own caution against comparison in isolation should be taken seriously, not because it lets landlords off the hook but because overclaiming weakens a campaign.

The strongest position for a residents’ group is disciplined: here is the published figure, here is the management information on the same theme, here is the survey method and whether it followed the rules, and here is the complaint record. That is a case a landlord has to answer. A single percentage is not.

FAQ

Where do I find my landlord’s TSM results?

Most landlords publish them on their own website, usually under a performance or tenant satisfaction page. The Regulator of Social Housing also publishes TSM data collections. If you cannot find your landlord’s return, ask for it in writing — it is required to be published.

Can I use a low TSM score to complain to the Ombudsman?

The Ombudsman deals with individual complaints about a landlord’s actions or failures, not with aggregate satisfaction scores. A low TSM score is not itself a complaint. But it can support a complaint about a specific service failure, and it can be cited as context. The complaint still needs to be about what happened to you.

What if my landlord’s survey did not follow the rules?

Raise it formally with the landlord, citing the regulator’s tenant survey requirements. If the landlord does not respond adequately, it can be raised through the tenant panel or scrutiny group, and ultimately with the Regulator of Social Housing as a concern about compliance with the Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard.

Does a low score mean the landlord is failing?

No. It means the landlord’s tenants reported low satisfaction on that measure. Whether that amounts to a failure of the consumer standards is a judgment for the regulator, based on a range of evidence. A residents’ group should treat the score as a prompt for questions, not as a verdict.

How many responses does a landlord need?

The regulator sets sampling requirements in the tenant survey requirements, with proportionate arrangements for smaller landlords. The summary of approach should state the sample size and how it was drawn. If it does not, ask.