Every two years Charnwood carries out a survey of its council tenants on various aspects of the landlord service.

This is known as a ‘STAR’ survey (‘STAR’ standing for ‘survey of tenants and residents’).

Surveys were carried out in 2016 and 2018. We were due to carry out a STAR survey in 2020 but were unable to do so because of the restrictions on everyone as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

That survey was delayed until restrictions were lifted in 2021. The survey was carried out in September last year by MEL Research using a representative sample of Charnwood tenants.

Most social housing providers – local authorities and housing associations - carry out STAR surveys; and there are a number of questions that all providers have to ask. This enables organisations to compare themselves with others through these common questions.

The graphic below shows satisfaction levels with the key questions asked.

Satisfaction levels on some key indicators were higher in 2021 than in 2018, for example, satisfaction that we provide a home that is safe and secure was up by four percentage points compared to 2018. Conversely, overall satisfaction with the service we provide was down seven percentage points compared to 2018 and satisfaction with the overall quality of the home was down eight percentage points. Some questions we asked in 2021 were different from those asked in 2018 and so a direct comparison to 2018 is difficult.

Other organisations carrying out STAR survey during the same period last year, including providers in Leicestershire, reported similar drops in satisfaction levels. One of the likely reasons for this is the effect that the pandemic had on the services we were able to provide, for example, the fact that we were not able to do any works in people’s homes such as the replacement of kitchens and bathrooms and the general closure of our offices to the public.

Customer engagement was one service area most affected by the coronavirus restrictions. This service is heavily reliant upon face-to-face communication with tenants and leaseholders and that had to stop completely during the restrictions. It is possible that this contributed to a general decline in satisfaction levels in respect of communication, being involved and the council listening to tenants’ views and acting upon them.

Now that all restrictions have been lifted, we are planning to carry out another STAR survey in the spring of 2023. In the meantime, a number of actions have been identified arising out of the tenant feedback from last year’s STAR survey. These include:

  • Following the complete lifting of restrictions and the awarding of new planned investment contracts for things such as kitchens, bathrooms and adaptations, our investment programme will start again in 2022, together with appropriate liaison with affected tenants and general communication through our website and social media in respect of the appointment of contractors;
  • A new four-year customer engagement strategy has been created in consultation with tenants and an action plan to fulfil the objectives set out in the strategy has been agreed. Since the latter part of last year, customer engagement has returned to its pre-pandemic state; a vacancy for a second customer engagement officer has now been filled and the team is both re-establishing existing engagement structures such as Charnwood Housing Residents’ Forum and the tenant editorial panel and conceiving new methods of involvement through the new strategy. The team will also be working with other landlord service teams to try to ensure that customer engagement lies at the heart of everything we do.

Away from the customer engagement team we will also look at options around the possible creation of an online customer portal through which residents can get access to a variety of self-service functions through our website.

  • A council-wide review of anti-social behaviour services has taken place, which aims to improve the service for all council residents in respect of reporting incidents of anti-social behaviour (ASB).  You can find our new web pages containing information about ASB and our online reporting form at www.charnwood.gov.uk/asb.
  • Although there was high satisfaction with many aspects of our repairs service we intend introducing improved performance reporting for this service in order to identify where improvements can be made.

Finally, we should like to thank all those who spared the time to respond to the questionnaire that MEL Research sent them.

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Results from the survey

The full results from the survey can be found in the document below.

We will also publicise them in our tenant and leaseholder magazine Your Homes Matter, on our social media channels and our email newsletters.

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Thank you for taking the time to complete the survey.

Tenant Survey results

An image that shows the results of the STAR survey 2021.

Last updated: Fri 21st July, 2023 @ 08:42