New figures from an annual survey has shown an improvement in the number of tenants satisfied with Mansfield District Council’s performance as a landlord.
Tenant Satisfaction Measures were introduced in 2023/24 as a regulatory requirement for all social landlords in England.
The council manages about 6,300 rented properties and a tenant perception survey, completed by 651 Mansfield council tenants, was carried out earlier this year.
It shows that overall satisfaction with the council’s performance was 68% - up by 7.3% on the council’s first tenant perception survey, which was carried out last year.
The council is benchmarked by 22 Tenant Satisfaction Measures (TSMs), 12 of which are in the tenant perception survey. The survey included 450 in-depth telephone interviews and an online survey, which had 201 responses. Improvements were recorded across all 12 survey-based TSMs.
As well as mandatory questions, respondents were also given the opportunity to say in their own words any reasons for their scores.
The main findings of the survey were:
- Overall satisfaction was 68% in 2024/25 (out of 651 responses). Of that, 32% were very satisfied, 36.1% were fairly satisfied, 10.8% were fairly dissatisfied and 8.8% were very dissatisfied. This compared with 60.7% satisfied in 2023/24.
- When benchmarked against other authorities with a similar number of properties to manage, the council was positioned between a high of 95% and a low of 38% and above the median score.
- Among the best performances were regarding treating tenants fairly and with respect, with 76.8% satisfied, and about the safety of their home, with 75.6% tenants satisfied.
- Tenants were least satisfied with how the council handled complaints with 33.3% satisfied (out of 135 responses) though this was an improvement on last year’s figure of 24.7%.
- Satisfaction with repairs and the speed of repairs were both improved; satisfaction with the speed of repairs was up by 12.5%. The way the council dealt with antisocial behaviour improved by 12%.
Cllr Anne Callaghan, Portfolio Holder for Housing, said: “These figures from the survey are very encouraging and we will endeavour to build on these improvements.
“It is clear from analysing the data that politeness, the ability to listen, and showing respect all matter to our tenants who really value how prompt the council is in dealing with any issue, and with the professionalism and quality of our repair services.
“There are still improvements needed, especially in how we deal with complaints and it is often the smallest of actions rather than the greatest of intentions that deliver the most meaningful positive impact – in other words it is not what we say we are going to do but what we actually do that matters.
“Now that we have this information, we have to act upon it and we want Mansfield to be among not just the 33% of organisations which create a TSM action plan but also among the 25% which actually implement it.”
Included in the council’s areas of focus to improve its satisfaction figures are:
- Handling complaints and reports of antisocial behaviour
- Tenants’ experience of repairs
- Better engagement with tenants including listening to views and acting on them, and keeping tenants informed.