1392 Wiltshire Council STAR Survey 2020 Report D10.Pub
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STAR Tenant Satisfaction Survey 2020 Report by Scott Rumley & Adam Payne [email protected] [email protected] (t) 0844 272 6004 (w) www.arp-research.co.uk Contents Page 1. Introduction 1 2. Executive summary 3 3. Services overall 7 4. The home 13 5. Information and involvement 18 6. Contacting housing services 22 7. Repairs and maintenance 29 8. Neighbourhood 36 9. Anti-social behaviour 42 10. Complaints 45 11 Financial advice and support 48 12. Respondent profile 51 Appendices A. Methodology and data analysis 56 B. Example questionnaire 59 C. Data summary 63 1. Introduction Background This report details the results of Wiltshire Council’s 2020 STAR tenant satisfaction survey, delivered by ARP Research. This survey has been completed every two years since 2012. The aim of the survey is to measure overall tenant satisfaction with the housing services provided by the Council. This survey uses HouseMark’s STAR model which is the Throughout the report the survey data has been broken down and analysed standardised methodology for by various categories, including by area and various equality groups. Where tenant and resident surveys. applicable the current survey results have also been compared against the www.housemark.co.uk/star 2018 STAR survey, including tests to check if any of the changes are statistically significant. Finally, the results have also been benchmarked against ARP Research’s STAR database of local authorities and ALMOs. Important note on tracking over time The methodology for the 2020 survey differed from 2018 in two important ways. The first was a significant increase in the online response rate, which in part reflects wider changes in public access to services during the COVID pandemic. The second was a new revision in HouseMark’s sector wide STAR tenant and resident survey framework that mandates more rigorous weighting of survey data to ensure that it is fully representative of the population. The 2020 survey sample is therefore the most representative Wiltshire tenant survey yet, including more responses from tenants that previously would not have taken part, and weighted to more accurately reflect the population. However, this causes difficulties comparing results over time, as those comparisons are not ‘like for like’ and for the Council to make informed decisions it has to know that any changes are likely to be real and not due simply to survey methodology. Accordingly, the 2018 results used for comparisons throughout this report are also weighted by age to match the methodology used this year (which increases the representation of young people in the sample), and therefore do NOT match those previously reported. To view the unweighted 2018 results, please see the equivalent Wiltshire Council STAR survey 2018 report. 1 1. Introduction About the survey The survey was carried out between May and July 2020, with a census of all 5,278 tenants. In the first phase, an email invitation and reminders were distributed to all 3,458 residents for whom a valid email address was available inviting them to complete the survey online, resulting in 706 eventual responses (20%). This was a 37% increase in the amount of email responses compared to 2018. In the second phase, a paper survey was distributed to the remaining 4,723 tenants that did not complete online within the first 2½ weeks. Two fifths of the responses were received online (40%), compared to only 31% in 2018. Additionally, over a quarter of sheltered housing respondents did so online. In total 1,6871 tenants took part in the survey, which represented a 35% response rate (error margin +/- 1.8%). The returns greatly exceeded the stipulated STAR target error margin. of +/- 4%, with a 3% increase in response rate compared to 2018. Understanding the results Most of the results are given as percentages, which may not always add up to 100% because of rounding and/or multiple responses. It is also important to take care when considering the results for groups where the sample size is small. Where there are differences in the results over time, or between groups, these are subjected to testing to discover if these differences are statistically significant . This tells us that we can by confident that the differences are real and not likely to be down to natural variation or chance. For detailed information on the survey response rates, methodology, data analysis and benchmarking, please see appendix A. 2 2. Executive summary Bench 2018 change 2020 mark result over time result 82% 82% 81% satisfaction overall 78% 81% 77% quality of home 85% N.A. 83% safety and security of home 85% 85% 87% value for money of rent 84% N.A. 80% easy to deal with 62% 60% 60% listens and acts on views 75% 76% 75% kept informed 81% 80% 81% dealing with enquiries generally 76% 77% 73% repairs & maintenance overall 84% 82% 78% last completed repair 84% 87% 84% neighbourhood as a place to live significantly no significant significantly better difference worse 3 2. Executive summary Overall satisfaction 1. Overall satisfaction with Wiltshire Council’s housing services is largely unchanged when compared to the 2018 results when both were weighted to be representative by age (81%, was 82%). On the opposite end of the scale 11% were actively dissatisfied. This score was also in line with ARP Research’s benchmark average of 82%. 2. At 81%, Satisfaction amongst tenants in sheltered accommodation had not changed since 2018, but this meant that it remained in the fourth quartile compared to the benchmark from other landlords. 3. However, satisfaction had fallen for a number of other core ratings including significant declines in satisfaction with the quality of the home (section 4), the repairs and maintenance service (section 7) and the neighbourhood as a place to live (section 8). However, not all changes were for the worse, indeed there was a notable significant increase in satisfaction with the rent in terms of value for money (section 4). 4. A ‘key driver’ analysis is a statistical test to check which other results in the survey are best at predicting overall satisfaction. In descending order of strength, the top four factors most closely associated with overall tenant satisfaction were: Wiltshire Council Housing is easy to deal with (80% satisfied, section 6) Quality of the home (77%, section 4) Repairs and maintenance overall (73%, section 7) Value for money for rent (87%, section 4) Contact and communication 5. Whether or not tenants feel that Housing Services is easy to deal with is now the best predictor of how satisfied they will be the Council’s landlord services overall, this being a new core STAR question. 6. It was therefore positive to see that most tenants were satisfied in response to this question (80%), compared to only 9% that actively disagreed. Similarly, 81% remained satisfied the how enquiries were generally handled, which was consistent with the 2018 survey (section 6). 7. In the context of the COVID lockdown there had been some changes in communication preferences, most notably an increase in the acceptability of email (61%, up from 51%) and text message (30% v 23%). 8. The use of iHousing amongst sheltered had doubled (now 27%) and had increased by half again for general needs (now 31%). However, there were a further 20-25% potential iHousing users based upon how many banked and shopped online. Information and involvement 9. How well Wiltshire Council Housing listened and acting upon tenants’ view remains a key driver of overall satisfaction. Three fifths of tenants were satisfied in this regard (60%) which is identical to the like-for-like 2018 weighted score and remains just below the benchmark median of 62% (section 5). 10. However, it was notable that more than a quarter of tenants in sheltered accommodation were dissatisfied in this regard (27%), nearly double the proportion of general needs tenants who said the same (15%) and triple the equivalent figure for general needs tenants of retirement age (9%). 11. Three quarters again felt that Wiltshire Council were generally good at keeping them informed about the things that affected them as residents (75%, was 76%), with Wiltshire’s score equal to the ARP Research median of 75%. 4 2. Executive summary The home 12. Many tenants were satisfied with the quality of their home (77%), including 33% that were ‘very satisfied’. However, this was significantly lower than the 81% that were satisfied in 2018, with the result now one point below the benchmark median (section 4). 13. This drop appears to be driven by the response of general needs tenants, amongst whom satisfaction has fallen significantly from 80% to 75%. 14. It is likely that this drop is related to the very similar fall in satisfaction with the repairs and maintenance service (section 7), indeed respondents who had received a repair in the previous year were significantly less satisfied than those who had not (74% v 83%) 15. The recently revised STAR survey template has expanded the focus on tenant’s homes to include specific consideration of safety and security. It is therefore pleasing to find that this was the highest rated aspect of the home (83% satisfied), including just under half that were ‘very’ satisfied. Repairs and maintenance 16. The repairs and maintenance service remains a key predictor of how tenants perceive Wiltshire Council Housing overall (section 3). 17. Three quarters of respondents were satisfied with this service overall (73%), which is down by a statistically significant four points compared to the previous survey. This meant that the score was now below the 76% benchmark median, with nearly a fifth of tenants being actively dissatisfied (18%, section 5).