The Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) has published its Tenant Satisfaction Measures (TSMs) results for 2025/26, revealing an improvement in overall satisfaction among social housing tenants in England. The results, released on 5 November 2026, show that the median landlord's overall satisfaction score for low-cost rental accommodation has increased from 71.8% in 2024/25 to 74.2% in 2025/26.
For contractors, maintenance providers, facilities management businesses and other organisations supplying the social housing sector, the findings provide valuable insight into where housing associations and local authorities are making progress, and where further improvements are needed. With repairs, safety, complaints handling and resident engagement all featuring prominently, suppliers have an opportunity to demonstrate how their services contribute to better outcomes for tenants.
What do the 2025/26 Tenant Satisfaction Measures show?
The RSH's latest Tenant Satisfaction Measures results draw on almost half a million tenant surveys, alongside operational information submitted by large social landlords across England.
The measures cover landlords with 1,000 or more homes, providing insight into performance across repairs, maintenance, building safety, complaints, neighbourhood management and tenant engagement.
There are 22 Tenant Satisfaction Measures in the 2025/26 reporting framework: 12 based on tenant perceptions and 10 drawn from landlords' management information.
Key tenant satisfaction results for 2025/26
The following figures represent median landlord satisfaction scores for low-cost rental accommodation, except where indicated.
Tenant Satisfaction Measure | 2025/26 result |
|---|---|
Overall satisfaction with landlord services | 74.2% |
Satisfaction with repairs | 76.0% |
Satisfaction with time taken to complete repairs | 73.0% |
Satisfaction that the home is well maintained | 74.3% |
Satisfaction that the home is safe | 79.3% |
Satisfaction that the landlord listens and acts on tenant views | 63.9% |
Satisfaction with complaints handling | 37.4% |
Satisfaction with communal area maintenance | 69.5% |
Overall satisfaction among shared owners (LCHO) | 49.8% |
Source: Regulator of Social Housing, Tenant Satisfaction Measures 2025/26 headline report. Figures are rounded to one decimal place.
The results are encouraging, particularly in repairs and maintenance. However, they also highlight significant differences between service areas. Complaints handling remains the lowest-scoring tenant perception measure, while satisfaction among shared owners continues to lag behind that of tenants in rental accommodation.
For businesses working with housing providers, understanding these differences can help shape service delivery proposals, performance reporting and future tender responses.
Repairs and maintenance: Improvements are beginning to show
Perhaps the most important finding for housing maintenance contractors is the continued improvement in repairs performance.
According to the RSH, 83% of non-emergency responsive repairs were completed within landlords' target timescales in 2025/26, compared with 77% in 2023/24. Performance for emergency repairs also improved, with approximately 93% completed within target timescales.
Tenant perceptions are moving in the same direction. Median satisfaction with the time taken to complete repairs has increased from 67.4% in 2023/24 to 73.0% in 2025/26, the largest improvement across the tenant perception measures.
The RSH identifies repairs and maintenance as particularly important drivers of overall tenant satisfaction. This suggests that improvements to these services can contribute significantly to how residents perceive their landlord.
What does this mean for repairs contractors?
For businesses bidding for responsive repairs, planned maintenance and housing improvement contracts, the findings reinforce the importance of demonstrating reliable delivery and a positive resident experience. Housing providers will want confidence that their contractors can manage repairs efficiently while maintaining service quality. Strong tender responses should explain how suppliers will:
- Improve first-time fix rates, reducing repeat appointments and disruption for tenants.
- Manage repairs backlogs, including outstanding jobs and cases approaching contractual deadlines.
- Communicate effectively with residents, providing clear appointment information and updates when delays occur.
- Monitor service quality, using tenant feedback alongside operational performance data.
- Address recurring problems, identifying trends in complaints, repeat repairs and property conditions.
The distinction between completing a repair within the target timescale and delivering a satisfactory experience is particularly important. The RSH's report notes that more than 1.2 million responsive repairs remained in progress at the end of March 2026. It also highlights the importance of looking beyond completed repairs to consider outstanding and cancelled jobs.
Suppliers that can demonstrate control over the full repairs process, rather than simply reporting completed jobs, will be better placed to explain the value of their approach.
Complaints handling remains a significant challenge
Despite improvements in operational performance, complaints handling continues to represent a major challenge. The RSH reports that more than 319,000 stage one complaints were recorded during 2025/26. Of these, approximately 86% were responded to within the timescales established by the Housing Ombudsman's Complaint Handling Code, compared with 73% in 2023/24.
However, the median satisfaction score for landlords' approach to complaints handling was just 37.4% among tenants who reported making a complaint. As such, although landlords are improving their compliance with response timescales, many tenants remain dissatisfied with how complaints are handled. Responding promptly does not necessarily mean that a resident considers their problem resolved.
How suppliers can contribute to better complaints outcomes
Contractors working directly with tenants can have a substantial influence on their experience of landlord services. For example, delays in completing a repair, poor communication about appointments or an unresolved defect may contribute to a complaint, even where the landlord is responsible for managing the formal complaints process.
Suppliers should therefore consider how their services support complaint prevention and resolution. This could include establishing clear escalation procedures, sharing accurate case information with housing providers, maintaining complete records of resident contact and identifying opportunities for service improvements.
In tender responses, it is useful to go beyond explaining that a complaints procedure exists. Where supported by evidence, suppliers should demonstrate how complaints and feedback have led to measurable changes in performance.
Building safety: Strong compliance, but continued scrutiny
Building safety remains a central priority for social housing landlords. The latest TSM results show that the vast majority of homes owned by large landlords had the relevant statutory safety checks completed as at 31 March 2026. Across the sector, the reported completion rates were:
- Gas safety checks: 99.7%
- Fire safety checks: 98.9%
- Asbestos safety checks: 98.7%
- Water safety checks: 98.2%
- Lift safety checks: 98.0%
All five measures have improved since the first year of TSM reporting in 2023/24, with particularly notable increases in asbestos, water and lift safety compliance. Nevertheless, the figures show that some required checks remained outstanding at year end.
The RSH also emphasises that completing safety inspections is only part of the overall picture. Landlords must ensure that remedial actions arising from inspections are addressed appropriately and within the required timescales.
Opportunities for compliance and specialist contractors
For businesses providing fire safety, gas servicing, asbestos management, water hygiene, lift maintenance or related services, these findings demonstrate the continued importance of robust compliance processes. Housing providers need suppliers capable of delivering inspections and maintenance consistently, maintaining reliable records and identifying outstanding actions before they develop into more serious risks.
A competitive tender response should provide clear evidence of relevant technical competence, quality assurance, workforce capability and procedures for managing remedial works. Suppliers should also explain how their reporting systems will give housing providers access to accurate, current information on compliance status and outstanding actions.
Shared ownership and resident engagement require attention
One of the clearest gaps in the results concerns shared ownership. The median overall satisfaction score for low-cost home ownership accommodation was 49.8%, considerably below the 74.2% recorded for low-cost rental accommodation. Although satisfaction among shared owners has increased slightly from the previous year, the difference remains substantial.
The RSH acknowledges that this partly reflects the different responsibilities and services associated with shared ownership. However, the results also highlight opportunities to improve the quality and value of services. Among shared owners, satisfaction with complaints handling was particularly low at 21.4%.
Resident engagement presents a further area for improvement across the wider sector. For tenants in low-cost rental accommodation, the median satisfaction score for landlords listening to tenant views and acting upon them was 63.9%.
Why resident experience matters to suppliers
Businesses delivering services on behalf of housing associations should recognise that tenant satisfaction is influenced by more than the technical quality of completed work. Residents also experience the quality of communication, the conduct of visiting staff, the accessibility of services and the effectiveness of problem resolution. For suppliers, this creates opportunities to differentiate their approach through measures such as accessible appointment arrangements, resident liaison, customer care training and structured feedback processes.
Suppliers involved in communal cleaning, grounds maintenance and estate services should also pay attention to the 69.5% satisfaction score for communal area maintenance. These services contribute directly to how residents experience their homes and neighbourhoods, even though they may not always attract the same attention as major repairs or building safety works.
What should social housing suppliers take from the 2025/26 results?
The results offer useful evidence of the sector's priorities, but they should not be treated as a universal set of tender evaluation criteria. Individual housing providers determine their own procurement requirements, service specifications and performance measures.
Nevertheless, suppliers can use the findings to strengthen their understanding of the challenges facing potential customers.
1. Connect operational KPIs with resident outcomes
Contractors should consider whether their performance reporting demonstrates both operational efficiency and service quality. For a responsive repairs provider, this might mean reporting on repairs completed within target timescales alongside first-time fix rates, repeat visits, outstanding works and resident satisfaction.
A housing provider needs to understand not only whether a service has been delivered, but whether it has produced the intended outcome.
2. Use evidence to demonstrate continuous improvement
The TSM results demonstrate the importance of tracking performance over time. Suppliers should be prepared to explain how they identify recurring issues, investigate underperformance and implement corrective actions.
Evidence from previous contracts can be particularly valuable. For example, a supplier might demonstrate how changes to appointment scheduling reduced missed visits, or how improved communications contributed to fewer complaints. Specific outcomes, supported by reliable data, are generally more persuasive than broad statements about customer service.
3. Understand the individual landlord's priorities
The published TSM dataset includes results for individual landlords, providing an additional source of information for businesses preparing to bid. However, suppliers should interpret these results carefully. The RSH highlights differences in reported satisfaction according to factors such as geography, landlord size, tenant profile and survey collection method. For example, median overall satisfaction for landlords operating predominantly in London was 63.1%, compared with 77.2% in the Midlands and 76.9% in the North.
These differences should not automatically be interpreted as differences in service quality. Suppliers should review an individual landlord's results alongside its wider operating context, strategic priorities and procurement documents.This research can help businesses understand where their services may provide the greatest benefit.
4. Make resident engagement part of the delivery model
The comparatively low scores for complaints handling and listening to tenant views demonstrate why customer experience should be integrated into contract delivery. Suppliers can strengthen their proposals by setting out clear arrangements for resident communication, complaint escalation, feedback collection and service improvement. The strongest approaches will explain who is responsible for each activity, how information will be shared with the landlord and how the effectiveness of improvements will be measured.
Preparing for future social housing tenders
The 2025/26 Tenant Satisfaction Measures results provide an encouraging picture of improving tenant satisfaction, particularly around repairs and maintenance. However, they also highlight challenges that housing providers and their contractors must continue to address.
For social housing suppliers, the opportunity is to demonstrate how their services can help landlords maintain these improvements while addressing weaker areas of performance. That means developing tender responses that connect operational capability with resident outcomes, supported by measurable commitments and evidence from previous contracts.
At Thornton & Lowe, we support contractors and service providers in developing competitive tenders for housing associations, local authorities and other public sector organisations. Our professional bid writing services help businesses interpret procurement requirements, develop strong quality responses and demonstrate how their services deliver value. We also provide specialist procurement and contract management support for social housing repairs, helping housing providers develop effective specifications, performance measures and contract management arrangements.
Whether you're preparing for a housing maintenance framework, a facilities management tender or a specialist compliance contract, understanding the priorities behind the procurement is essential. Speak to Thornton & Lowe about your next social housing tender and find out how we can help you prepare a competitive, evidence-led submission.
