Tenant satisfaction measures (TSM)

Outline houses in a street

The Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) is creating a new system for assessing how well social housing landlords are providing their tenants with quality homes and services. The RSH held a consultation on the introduction of a series of Tenant Satisfaction Measures (TSM) as part of this new system.  

Now that the consultation has closed, the RSH has finalised the new TSMs. From April 2023, the regulator will collect information on tenants' satisfaction with their landlord through 22 newly agreed measures.

The TSMs will cover five main themes:

  • Repairs
  • Building safety
  • Effective complaint-handling
  • Respectful and helpful tenant engagement
  • Neighbourhood management including anti-social behaviour.

Results will be collected through tenant surveys and landlord data.

Why TSMs are in place

Part of the government's response to the Grenfell Tower tragedy in June 2017 was the Social Housing White Paper published in November 2020. The paper included that the regulator would be introducing a set of measures that are important to tenants.

The measures form part of a huge overhaul of social housing regulations and aims to bring in a more tenant-focused system.

The consultation

The majority of feedback on the consultation on the measures was positive. It received 1,098 responses, including from social housing tenants, shared owners, councils and housing associations.

The RHS has made several changes in response to suggestions and comments made by respondents.

It had initially proposed one TSM that covered whether a home is well-maintained as well as safe, but now there will be two separate TSMs on each theme. It also changed the TSM that measures satisfaction with the landlord's approach to handling complaints. Now respondents can clarify whether they had made a complaint.

The full set of TSM questions are available on the government website.