Boost in tenant satisfaction with council housing services

Survey results show a boost in tenant satisfaction levels with council housing services, following action to reduce a backlog of repairs and improve the quality and safety of council homes in the city.

A total of 1,002 residents gave their views in the council’s annual Survey of Tenants and Residents for 2025/26, carried out by an independent market research company.

The survey focused on how happy council tenants are with the way the council maintains council homes and delivers key housing services.

71% of tenants who took part said they were ‘very satisfied’ or ‘fairly satisfied’ with housing services overall, up from 67% the year before.  

Satisfaction improved in all but one of the 12 measures in the survey.

The biggest improvements in satisfaction levels were with the repairs service (up from 68% to 77%) and listening to and acting upon tenants’ views (up from 53% to 63%).

Satisfaction with the handling of anti-social behaviour (ASB) fell slightly, from 56% to 55%.

The lowest area of satisfaction remains complaints handling, up from 26% to 28%.

Action to improve council homes

The positive feedback reflects ongoing work to improve council homes and housing services.

Our Housing Repairs and Maintenance team carries out more than 3,000 repairs a month, a mixture of routine and emergency repairs.

An historical backlog of routine repairs has been significantly reduced since 2024. Measures to reduce the backlog included appointing external contractors to increase capacity, improving efficiency and focussing on better communication with tenants.

We are also making progress in 4 key areas to improve the safety of council homes, fire, water, electrical and smoke detection.

We also expanded our team dealing with damp and mould, in preparation for Awaab’s law which came into force in October.

We are continuing to encourage tenants to report any problems with damp and mould in their homes and taking action to resolve them, and this led to an increase in the number of repairs reported this autumn and winter.

Thank you to tenants for their feedback

Councillor Gill Williams, Cabinet Member for Housing, said: “We aim to be a great landlord and we’re working hard to improve council homes and housing services.

“Residents are at the heart of this work and so it’s very positive to see a general improvement in satisfaction levels in this latest Survey of Tenants and Residents.

“However, we’re not complacent and we know there’s still a lot more to do to meet tenant expectations.

“Responses to survey will help us to plan services and highlight where we need to do more to improve and I would like to thank everyone who took part in the survey and gave their views.”

Survey responses

Below is the response to questions about different aspects of the service, showing the percentage of surveyed residents who were ‘very satisfied’ or ‘fairly satisfied’, as opposed to those who were ‘neither satisfied nor dissatisfied’, ‘fairly dissatisfied’ or ‘very dissatisfied’:    

• Well maintained home 71% (up from 65% in 2024/25)
• Safe home 74% (up from 69%)
• Communal areas clean and well maintained 71% (up from 66%)
• Overall repairs service over the last 12 months 77% (up from 68%)
• Time taken to complete last repair 71% (up from 63%)
• Listening to and acting upon views 63% (up from 53%)
• Keeping you informed 72% (up from 67%)
• Treating you fairly and with respect 77% (up from 76%)
• Positive contribution to neighbourhood 64% (up from 58%)
• Handling of anti-social behaviour 55% (down from 56%)
• Complaints handling 28% (up from 26%)
• Giving you a say in service management 62% (up from 56%)

While our satisfaction levels for ASB and complaints are consistent with the satisfaction levels reported in data for local authority landlords nationally in 2024/25 (the latest national figures available), we are using this feedback to ensure we prioritise these areas for improvement.

Further information

A representative sample of tenants were invited to take part in the survey in the by completing a telephone interview in the autumn.

The survey results are part of tenant satisfaction measures which we provide to the Regulator of Social Housing.

Find out more about our housing performance and the Survey of Tenants and Residents.