Tenant Satisfaction Measures 2025/26

Thrive has reported against the draft Tenant Satisfaction Measures (TSMs) since Q4 2021/22 – ahead of them becoming a regulatory requirement in April 2023, which means that we are now benefitting from four years of comparable data.

Throughout the year our independent market research agency interviews around 90 customers a month, enabling us to gather real-time insights into customer experience. By using this data alongside key performance indicators we can identify customer priorities and guide how we allocate our budget to create service improvements that are of the greatest value to our customers.

In 2025/26, we gathered a total of 1,102 survey responses, which is broken down into two groups:

• Low cost rented accommodation (LCRA) – Tenants
• Low cost homeowners (LCHO) – Shared Owners.

Find out more about how we collect and analyse our data below:

• Summary of our approach
• TSM Questionnaire 2025/26
• Overview of respondent demographic profiles

We have continued to see improvements how satisfied customers are with our services.

Whilst overall satisfaction for both Low Cost Rented Accommodation (LCRA) – our tenants – and Low Cost Homeowners (LCHO) – our shared owners – showed a slight decline on the previous year, we have seen improvements across all other measures as part of the perception surveys.

Key learnings from this year’s results
Low cost rented accommodation saw notable improvements of over 4% in:

• Home is well maintained (4%)
• Landlord listens to views and acts upon them (5%)
• Clean and well-maintained communal areas (7%)
• Landlord makes a positive contribution to their neighbourhood (4.8%)

Whilst overall satisfaction dipped slightly for shared ownership (LCHO homes) all other measures of satisfaction have increased since last year with notable changes of more than 4% in the below areas:

• Safe home (9%)
• Landlord listens to views and acts upon them (9.9%)
• Treated with respect (5.5%)
• Complaint handling (13.9%)
• Clean and well-maintained communal areas (15.6%)
• Landlord makes a positive contribution to their neighbourhood (15.7%)
• ASB handling (10%)

Acting on customer feedback from previous surveys and wider customer data, this year we have:

• Implemented new cleaning and grounds maintenance contracts, resulting in over 7% increase in satisfaction across both customer groups. Over the year, residents have had the opportunity to join the team on estate inspections and provide regular feedback through our website.
• Increased investment in our repairs team to improve efficiency and reduce the amount of works in progress, which had a positive impact on timeframes and customer satisfaction.
• Alongside wider service improvements strengthened reporting procedures and more robust quality checks now ensure our centralised complaints team are more consistently meeting Housing Ombudsman timescales for responses.

Having recently completed a merger bringing Thrive Homes and Watford Community Housing together as Chime Housing, our aim is to provide a consistent level of service for our customers with a continued focus on:

• Repairs: maintaining the good work achieved over the past 12 months and continuing to improve the time it takes to complete a repair including follow on work, and how we communicate about appointments.
• Cleaning & grounds maintenance services: continuing to monitor and assess the performance of our contracts, whilst promoting opportunities for customers to get involved as block representatives.
• Improving first contact resolution: helping customers get the right support first time by reducing wait times and improving access through the Customer Service Centre. This includes the introduction of new communication channels – such as WhatsApp – to make it quicker and easier to get in touch.
• Do what we say we will: by continuing to improve on how we report, complete and monitor actions for customers in a timely manner. This is supported by a wider Promise to Customers which was created following a 10-week customer consultation as part of our merger talks. Find out more here.

At the end of 2025/26 one home did not meet the Decent Home Standard equating to less than 0.02% of our total housing stock. This is due to the identification of subsidence under HHSRS, with remediation works delayed by insurer monitoring requirements. The tenant has been permanently decanted.

Alongside service improvements, we have strengthened how we manage complaints:

• Better tracking and updates – improved reporting helps us keep a closer eye on complaints, update customers more regularly and make sure agreed actions are followed through.
• Keeping to timescales – clearer processes and stronger monitoring mean more complaints are now responded to on time.
• Stronger checks – all actions from our internal audit have been completed, giving confidence that our approach is consistent and working well.
• Fairer outcomes – a new Compensation Policy, based on Ombudsman guidance and supported by training, is helping ensure decisions are fair, consistent and focused on putting things right.

We have seen a slight increase in escalations to Stage 2 complaints which is often linked to cases where actions are complex and take longer to complete. We will continue to focus on this area to make sure we deliver on our promises and put things right.

The rise in Stage 1 complaints from Shared Owners relates to several new-build homes where parking management and building issues affected certain blocks. In response, we’ve strengthened early communication with shared ownership buyers and introduced more robust contract management with our parking contractors.

We have seen a slight increase in escalations to Stage 2 complaints which is often linked to cases where actions are complex and take longer to complete. We will continue to focus on this area to make sure we deliver on our promises and put things right.