Tenants give SLH the thumbs up!

An in-depth survey has revealed that the vast majority of South Liverpool Housing tenants are satisfied with the services provided by SLH.

4,446 postal surveys were sent out to all tenants in December 2009 and January 2010 to seek their views on the services they receive from SLH and to determine areas that need to be improved.   

The survey found that 85% of SLH tenants are satisfied with our overall service, an increase of 9% since the last 2007 survey. 

The survey consists of 48 questions and is a government requirement that it must be produced every three years.  The results are used for national benchmarking, were tenant satisfaction levels at SLH can be compared with other landlords of a similar size and nature.

Overall satisfaction with day-to-day repairs has shown a marked improvement since the 2007 survey with 79% of tenants answering positively, an increase of 8%.  This indicates that tenants are pleased with the outcomes of SLH Homeservice, a unique repairs and maintenance partnership with local firm Penny Lane Builders which was launched in 2008.

Other results revealed that 74% of tenants believed their landlord took their views into consideration, a significant increase of 22% since 2007.  This result has placed SLH in the top 25% of landlords across the county for taking tenants views into account.

Julie Marsh, Head of Regeneration and Service Development said “It is fantastic to see that satisfaction amongst tenants has improved across every area since the last survey over two years ago.  We place utmost importance on the results of this survey which will help us to further improve our services in the ways our tenants want.”

Other statistics from the customer satisfaction survey show:
• 91% thought it was easy to contact the right person in the association they needed to speak with.

• 87% of tenants reported that they are satisfied with the quality of their home.  This reflects the significant improvements SLH has made to properties over the last ten years.

• 79% were satisfied with their neighbourhood as a place to live

• 75% were satisfied with the final outcome of the last contact they had with SLH

• 33% said abandoned or burnt out vehicles were seen as the biggest problems in their neighbourhood. 

• Satisfaction with the way SLH deals with anti social behaviour issues has increased by 29% since the last survey in 2007.

A prize draw incentive was also offered to anyone who completed the survey and three lucky winners won £100 worth of shopping vouchers.  Congratulations to: Mr Williams from Garston, Mrs Longley from Woolton and Mr Parkes from Speke.

The high levels of satisfaction comes in the wake of an encouraging short notice inspection report from the Audit Commission, a government agency which monitors performance of housing associations across the country.  The inspection took place in January this year and revealed that SLH has ‘more strengths than weaknesses’ in the services it delivers to tenants.  The report praised the speed in which the landlord completes repairs, the high standards of gas safety and the measures in place to ensure tenants get the benefits and money advice they need.

The results of both the survey and the inspection will help SLH to develop an action plan which looks at ways they can continue to improve the services delivered to tenants.  Tenants themselves have been heavily involved in designing this plan to ensure service improvements meet their needs.